Word: migrant
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...HAJI RASHID, elderly Afghan migrant to Holland, arriving in Kabul on the first civilian flight from Western Europe to Afghanistan since the Soviet Union invaded...
...exhort listeners to attend the latest Victoria Park rally. Downtrodden Bangkok citizens listen in glee as a crusading radio program exposes?in real time?a corrupt traffic cop as he tries to extort money from a taxi driver (who rings the program as the shakedown is happening). A lonely migrant worker in southern China receives advice on how to find a mate even without the help of a village matchmaker. Best of all, since talk radio flourishes at the intersection of anonymity and outspokenness, even the shyest Asian can discuss anything from democracy to dildos without having to divulge...
Over the past decade, remittances of wages from migrant workers to their native countries have risen 44%, to an estimated $138 billion last year, and they are projected to grow an additional 28% over the next three years. According to the Nilson Report, which tracks payment services, Western Union controls nearly 80% of the electronic money-transfer market in the U.S., the world's biggest sender of remittances, which helped it pick up a nicely rounded $1 billion in profit last year from $3.2 billion in revenue. But several years of 30% profit margins have drawn complaints of price gouging...
...Many migrant workers also use black-market currency traders. Known as hawala in the Middle East, hundi in India and fei chien ("flying money") in China, these unlicensed remittance networks were targeted by the U.S. after 9/11, because some had been used by al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. The following month the U.S.A. Patriot Act made participating in these networks a felony, and the law has been used more than 20 times against alleged violators...
...since 1999, sent home $32 billion last year. They also shelled out $4 billion in remittance fees, or about 12.5% of the money they sent--nearly 50% more than what Turks pay to wire funds from Germany or Filipinos pay to send money from the Persian Gulf. Latin American migrant workers pay more because they tend to steer clear of banks in their home countries as well as abroad. In Mexico, for example, only 1 in 5 citizens has a bank account. Unstable local currencies don't help matters, nor does the memory of mid-century bracero contracts, which temporarily...