Central American Remittances’ Premium Protection Stakes
With the US planning to lift “temporary protection status” for Northern Triangle El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and Haiti migrants, remittances jumped 8% to $75 billion for the seventeen countries in the Inter-American Dialogue database last year. The pace was a multiple of 1% regional GDP growth and mirrored export increase. For Central America and the Caribbean 3.5% growth was due to a 15% remittance uptick, and the numbers reflected continued North American labor demand as well as dollar depreciation in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. The violence-prone Triangle area has been in recession for a decade and families continue to head to the US border with apprehensions also declining. In Guatemala as an example 15% of the Western Highlands population left and transfers were up 17% according to the central bank. One-quarter of El Salvador’s citizens want to leave, surveys show, and in the Dominican Republic despite greater stability the number of transactions has jumped. Haitian emigration on the eighth anniversary of the record earthquake is toward Canada and South America as well, particularly to Brazil and Chile, which now hosts 100,000 in contrast with 5000 before the event. Mexican remittance growth was steady at 6%, but the weaker dollar may have prompted slightly lower volume. The individual principal amounts sent roughly reflect the 2016-17 aggregate changes, but deportation fears may be forcing more savings on hand in case of such action. The flows contribute in the range of 5-35% of GDP, and work abroad is often the main alternative to informal employment at home, with substandard pay and labor protection. In El Salvador and Haiti immediately targeted for status termination, they account for one-third of national income, and Haitian migrants with the TPS designation are 6% of the total, the Dialogue report notes. President Trump allegedly used an epithet to describe the poorest hemisphere country, as a 2017 survey of five US cities revealed mounting Latino anxiety over potential law enforcement crackdown or new taxation.
On average a dozen payments are transmitted annually and only one-tenth are through the internet. With a tax 40% polled would resort to informal services, and one-quarter plan to cut amounts. One-third of immigrants think they will be deported, and 60% do not expect home government support. Over half would be open to a fine to normalize status, and the same portion claimed jobs were harder to get with the Administration’s tougher despite the healthy US economy. 70% of respondents believe that the door will be shut altogether to legitimate refugees as the provisional shelter program also lapses. Honduras’ external bond was shaky as President Hernandez was inaugurated for a second term after a disputed election fostering street protests and a security force response with live ammunition. The opposition candidate, a sports broadcaster, cited computer manipulation of his apparent victory and national strikes were organized against “dictatorship” as the Organization for American States urged a rerun. Chile may harden its line against Haitians after President Pinera’s second term win, which upgraded the growth forecast to 3.5% on boosted private sector confidence and modest rate cuts alongside but he may turn previous social spending promises to rubble.
