a1655: Boston Globe: Immigrants paychecks a lifeline (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Immigrants' paychecks are lifeline for poor nations

By Corey Dade, Globe Staff, 4/8/2002

eneath a dingy, white sign, Boby Express doesn't stand out
amid the bustle of Mattapan Square. Its nearly naked bay
window reveals a small and spare store, no hint of its
significance as an extraordinary engine for a nation's
economy.

But on payday, at the end of every week, this modest money
transfer store becomes a critical stop for many of the
65,000 or so Haitian immigrants in the Boston area, a
financial lifeline to families struggling back home, often
in abject poverty.

Barely able to support themselves, many immigrants
nevertheless funnel money through places like Boby Express
to relatives for clothing, food, and schooling. Countries
in the Caribbean and Latin America receive an estimated $23
billion in such remittance payments from citizens in
Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Perhaps nowhere, though, is the money more vital than in
the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: Haiti, a
place where steady jobs are scarce, there is no organized
form of government social assistance, and even public
schools are mostly out of the reach of the poorest
children.

''I don't know how Haiti would have survived in the past 10
years without this support. We can't even talk about an
economic slump; the economy of Haiti is completely
destroyed,'' said Pierre J. Imbert, executive director of
the Haitian Multiservice Center in Dorchester. ''Money from
New York, Miami, and Boston has probably kept the economic
life going there in Haiti.''

Haiti welcomes about $750 million in remittances each year,
not including the sums that thousands of others bring with
them when visiting from abroad, according to the Haitian
embassy in Washington. Much of it comes from the Haitian
diaspora in the United States - more than 800,000 people.

One of those is Alourdes Domeneque. Every month, she makes
her way to places like Boby Express. As far as her
relatives in Haiti know, Domeneque, 58, is prospering.

In truth, she was laid off nearly three weeks ago. Ten
years after leaving Haiti, she survives on an unemployment
check of $525 every two weeks. The single mother pays $875
a month to rent an apartment in Brookline and helps support
two adult daughters.

Back in her hometown of Croix des Bouquets, two brothers, a
sister, another sister with 16 children, and ''so many
others I can't even count,'' Domeneque said, also await
money from her.

In a break from a literacy class at the Association of
Haitian Women in Dorchester last week, Domeneque
acknowledged through an interpreter that it is a struggle
to maintain more than one household.

But it isn't a burden, she insisted. In Haiti, receiving
money from a relative abroad is simply an expectation of
every family, and a prideful benefit.

''You are their only hope,'' Domeneque said. ''It's not
frustrating. You become a leader in the family.''

The need for money transferring services became more
apparent in the late 1970s as more and more Haitian
immigrants began arriving in this country. Haitian
businessman Robert Rhau recognized it on his trips to the
States.

''Every time he came, people asked him to take their money
back [to Haiti] for their families,'' said Max Jeanty, a
Boby Express employee. The store, Rhau's answer to those
requests, was founded in the early 1980s to wire money back
home and now operates in 18 locations in the United States
and Canada.

''It's owned by a Haitian specifically for Haitians,''
Jeanty said.

As the Haitian community in Mattapan and Dorchester has
grown and spread to other towns, so has the money transfer
businesses catering to them. Several operations dot Blue
Hill Avenue in Mattapan Square. Another Boby Express on
Broadway in Cambridge, as well as Charlot Express across
the street, draw customers from the burgeoning Haitian
populations in that city, as well as Somerville, Malden,
Medford, and Lynn.

''It is direct help. The money doesn't go through, let's
say, the government or a nonprofit organization,'' said
Harold Joseph, a Haitian embassy official.

It was the growth of remittances to Latin American that
first convinced the Mexican government and others to urge
US banks and other businesses to make money transfers more
affordable. In Mexico, remittances have become the
third-largest source of income, with $9 billion generated
each year, according to the government.

Most of the money comes from Mexican nationals rather than
Mexican Americans, most of whom were born in the United
States or whose families have come across the border. Some
Mexican immigrants may struggle to make ends meet here, but
to their kin in Mexico they are benefactors.

''We clean the toilets, clean dishes in restaurants; we
work in the factories, we work in the offices. We are able
to do almost anything for almost anything,'' said Julio
Aragon, president of the Mexican Association of Rhode
Island, who sent money back to Mexico for years.

The sacrifice, Aragon said, is worth it. ''We have to live
in apartments with almost 10 or 15 people sometimes to pay
cheap rent, but it's much better than in Mexico,'' he said.

After leaving Haiti 12 years ago, Villa Labranche, who
teaches computer skills at the Haitian Multiservice Center,
owns his own home in Randolph.

But in addition to his wife and two children, he also
provides for his 83-year-old mother, five brothers, and
three sisters in the town of Gonaives. The amount varies,
but some months he sends as much as $250, the average
amount most Haitians say they wire each month. Many send
more just before Easter and Christmas.

Recently, when refinancing his home for extra cash,
Labranche, the youngest of his siblings, was anguished
after turning down a request from one of his brothers.

''I said, `I have nothing yet,''' said Labranche, 38. ''If
I don't pay my mortgage, we're out. We do what we can.''

In some cases, cash from the United States has helped put
families in Haiti into new homes - built room by room as
the payments come. It is not unusual for a house with three
bedrooms and a bathroom to take 10 or 15 years to finish,
Haitians said.

But mostly, people subsist off remittances.

As she considers the limits of slightly more than $1,000 in
monthly income, Domeneque realizes she will have to send a
bit less to her family until she finds work. But she
reminds herself aloud of her importance to her family in
Croix des Bouquets as they try to survive.

''They,'' she said, ''can't help themselves.''

Corey Dade can be reached at dade@globe.com.

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 4/8/2002.



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