Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmat ul Llah hi wa Barokatuh,
1. Selamat beribadah puasa sebulan lamanya dengan tujuan memperkukuh-hayati
ketaqwaan dan keimanan. Potensi dari latihan ini dipergunakan untuk sebelas
bulan mendatang membantu menegak keadilan, kebenaran dan kemaslahatan
masyarakat.
2. Immigrant workers and their respective communities worldwide are creating a
worldwide parallel people's economy. In 2005, these migrant workers sent a
total $232 billions to their country of origin, and according to WB around $100
billions are being sent back to their home countries. Last year, another $200
billions. How these huge amount of money is being send? Of course, most of
them are through money transfer agency/medium. Unfortunately, these "middlemen"
institutions charged between 8-15% and more in fees and commissions. These
charging rate are exorbitantly or exceptionally high. Thus, creating in
billions of lost income for these low-income workers and their families.
How to make use of this huge parallel people's economy and reestablish
financial justice? That's where TIGRA- Transnational Institute for Grassroot
Research and Action chips in. Actional agenda of TIGRA is: "In partnership with
community and ethnic associations, TIGRA is organizing Million Dollar Remitters
Clubs in immigrant neighborhoods (networked as as an association of remitters
nationally) that can advocate for âEUROOEtransnational community benefits
agreementsâEURO with industry leaders to support community reinvestment
priorities. Aside from lowering transaction fees, key parts of these agreements
include:
Reinvestment of a percentage of profit back to neighborhood projects here
and in peopleâEURO(tm)s communities of origin;
Expansion of financial services to a largely âEUROOEunbankedâEURO
constituency, including integration of community development institutions like
credit unions, co-ops, and social banks;
Adopt socially-responsible screens for their investments, including
disinvesting from third world debt and other development projects inimical to
people-centered development;
Adopt a uniform code of conduct that includes respect, non-discrimination
based on language and national origin, and transparency of services.
ThatâEURO(tm)s the vision and ambition of TIGRAâEURO(tm)s work."
3. I am hoping this sort of approaching, namely to do service to our very own
community, here and back home, based upon this kind of social business model
are already in the mind of the current IMSA, RN, IMAAM or IKI leaderships. If
it is not, then it is good idea to materialize this idea to benefit us all. If
agreed, then we can plan out on the HOW. There are many brilliant thinkers out
there in these mailing lists that can be a great help conceptualizing and
putting up this HOW.
Remittances: For Love and money
Foreign Policy In Focus
Yania Marcelino was a six-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic when her
mother left their family to find work in another country. She went first to
Puerto Rico, then later to New York City to work as a seamstress. There she
began sending money back to Marcelino and her three siblings and four cousins.
The children often had to travel 15 or 20 kilometers to get to the wire
transfer agency, and sometimes the money sent was lost.
For nine years, her mother tried to be part of their lives through letters,
sometimes including money for them to take pictures to send to her. She sent a
dress and shoes for Marcelino's first communion, but they never arrived. At 21,
Marcelino was ready for university but could not pay for it. Her mother applied
to bring her to the United States, but Marcelino had become pregnant and
couldn't get a visa. By the time her immigration paperwork went through, she
was 24 with a baby to support.
"It took me three months to find work [in the United States]," she says. "And
I started to send money."
Today, Marcelino works part-time as a neighborhood organizer for a community
organization in Providence, Rhode Island. On weekends, she also works as a
hairdresser to support her three children. She continues to raise money to send
to her hometown, most recently $2,500 to pay for a local girl's operation.
Part of her community activism involves serving on a local coordinating
committee for the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action
(TIGRA). This national network of immigrants like Marcelino together sends
millions in remittances, or money transfers, to families throughout the Global
South. By coming together, these immigrants have begun to see the power of
organizing their dollars and numbers. Remittances from immigrants now represent
more than the global total of overseas development assistance. It can be a
powerful driver of sustainable economic development.
Labor Moves North, Money Flows South Globalization has transformed the lives
of hundreds of millions of people in this generation. Countless individuals
have moved from villages to towns, from cities to overseas in search of ways to
provide for their families and escape poverty, violence, and an uncertain
future. Many have come to the United States to work as low-wage laborers. Part
of the largest influx of immigrants since the turn of the 19th century, they
have created an unprecedented level of money transfer from the global North to
the South as they send money home to their families.
Sending a remittance is an individual act of love from the sender to the
receiver. But if seen as a collective practice, it is transformed into economic
power that can be of service to family and community. Cross-border organizing
around remittances can ultimately pose a challenge to the current model of
unequal development that has forced people to leave their homes.
Neoliberal economic policies of unfettered trade (e.g. under the North
American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA), privatization of state-run industry
and services, and the triumph of investor rights over labor rights have
together failed to reduce poverty or create economic growth. In fact, they have
made conditions worse. Since these economic policies have not been working,
people have resorted to a grassroots transfer of labor and capital. Workers
migrate away from their families to serve as labor in rich countries and send
capital in the form of remittances back to their loved ones in impoverished
communities around the world. In this way, mobilizing remittances toward
sustainable development can be a means of using neoliberalism against itself.
These remittances have eclipsed the amount rich countries spend on foreign
aid. In 2005, migrant workers sent a total of $232 billion to their country of
origin, more than three times the amount of official development assistance. In
many parts of the developing world, remittances account for 30% or more of the
gross domestic product. Inflows from Mexicans living abroad, for example,
represent the country's second largest source of foreign income behind oil
exports.
Hometown Associations TIGRA is part of the growing grassroots movements
linking immigrants with their communities of origin. Many immigrants in the
United States, especially from Mexico, have come together in "hometown
associations," directly linking communities here with their home communities.
These connections can provide a substantial alternative to foreign aid and
investment, as these cross-border ties are strengthened. This is crucial since
international financial institutions that provide "aid" often contribute to the
harmful economic policies that have displaced people from their home countries.
More than 1,000 Mexican hometown associations exist in the United States.
These associations send money to rebuild after natural disasters, promote
health and education efforts, and support the development of basic
infrastructure. As these associations have grown in financial importance, the
Mexican government has taken note, matching the contributions of these groups
to several Mexican states by 3 to 1.
But the Mexican government's increasing reliance on these associations is part
of the flawed neoliberal model that dictates a decreased role for government in
providing basic services and investing in sustainable development. Rather than
mitigate the economic factors that have forced so many to migrate, the Mexican
government has chosen instead to support the export of its second most
profitable resource, labor.
Building an Alternative TIGRA encourages community and ethnic associations to
conduct surveys to establish that their members contribute at least $1 million
of remittances per year. These Million Dollar Clubs (MDCs) have formed across
the United States from Oakland to New York, Los Angeles to Minneapolis, and
Fargo to El Paso. Involved immigrant and community organizations include the
Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, Pilipino Workers Center in Los Angeles,
Casa Aztlan in Chicago, and Somali Action Alliance in Minneapolis. As a MDC,
immigrants can speak with one voice as "millionaires" for their local area,
demand accountability of those who prey on their vulnerability, and set
priorities for reinvestment.
At the next level up, La Liga (The League) networks the Million Dollar Clubs
and their allies globally as economic leverage to promote sustainable
development. It allows member organizations in both host and home countries to
have the ability to jointly apply pressure to receiving and sending governments
to respond to community needs and change policies that exacerbate migration. La
Liga is also involved in setting up a Transnational Community Reinvestment Fund
(TCRF) that will provide an alternative to foreign "aid" and international
financial institutions. The founding convention of La Liga is set for May 2008
in Mexico City. In the meantime, TIGRA is conducting consultations across the
United States to determine what a truly democratic TCRF would look like.
The Fund seeks to support and promote alternative models of community
development whose values of solidarity, sustainability, and holistic human
development are central to the economic enterprise. The functions of the Fund
will include providing grants, loans, and technical assistance to strengthen
and promote alternative economic development initiatives in communities of the
global South and North that have borne the brunt of neoliberalism. This can
include, but is not limited to, building affordable housing, development of
local-serving business ventures, and establishing cooperative and
community-owned institutions. TIGRA is expected to launch the Fund in the
spring of 2008.
Western Union and the Money Transfer Scam An immediate challenge faced by
immigrant communities is the high fees associated with remittance transactions.
Being forced to spend billions in transfer fees to send money back home for
food, urgent medical care, and education is a major economic security issue for
immigrants. Studies show that if money transfer fees were cut in half, 33
million people could be lifted out of poverty in the developing world.
Immigrant workers spend up to a week's wages to pay these monthly fees; for
families in their home countries, the fee represents almost two month's worth
of wages.
This is why TIGRA organizers have as their current central focus a campaign to
pressure the global money transfer giant, Western Union, to lower fees and
prioritize community reinvestment in sustainable development. Such a move would
make the money transfer industry more accountable to its customer base:
immigrants who often work low-paying jobs with little regulation. This scenario
is grounded in economic reality; wire transactions cost less than $5 to a
company that charges $20 or more.
Specifically, TIGRA is urging Western Union to adopt a Transnational Community
Benefits Agreement (TCBA) that would lower fees, establish fairer exchange
rates, and provide community reinvestment for sustainable development. A year's
worth of dialogue with the company has borne little fruit thus far. Organizers
with TIGRA are threatening a September boycott of the company if Western Union
continues to deny compliance with the tenets of the TCBA.
Ultimately, however, TIGRA's success depends not on how much Western Union
lowers its fees, nor even on the total number of dollars reclaimed for
marginalized communities in rich and poor countries. As one Dominican activist
said, "We don't want to do this just to get some money in people's hands. If
we're going to work on this, it has to be about building a network to stop the
monster of neoliberalism."
Francis Calpotura is the executive director of the Transnational
Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA). Originally from the
Philippines, he has been involved in cross-border organizing around economic
justice for the last 20 years. TIGRA is based in Oakland but has affiliates
throughout the United States.
For More Information To get involved with their current Western
Union campaign, visit www.transnationalaction.org.
About TIGRA- Transnational Institute for Grass Root Action
TIGRA is a project that promotes financial justice through the
economic power of immigrants--those who send billions of dollars to families
they've left behind in their countries of origin. According to World Bank
estimates, immigrants in the United States sent home nearly $100 billion in
2005. Most used the services of a money transfer agency and charged 8-15% in
fees and commissions, resulting in billions of lost income for low-income
workers and their families.
Details can be seen at http://www.transnationalaction.org/
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Check out fun summer activities for kids.
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