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All Progress is Local
Written December 2006
I
spent two weeks researching and writing this essay for a scholarship
competition. It was due at midnight, I barely finished at 11:55
pm, and was about to submit it when I realized that the deadline was
midnight, Eastern Standard Time!
Nonetheless,
I was glad to write the essay. Through the process, I learned so
much about foreign aid and possible solutions
for developing nations in our interconnected world.
I never realized it before, but my hometown – San Diego, California – is an important city in the world. A major portal, Mexican immigrants both legal and illegal enter the United States through San Diego in pursuit of economic opportunity.
Frequently, professors, sociologists, and citizens throughout the city
debate immigration policies and what the government should do in
response to the floods of people arriving.
Before these discussions can occur, however, it is crucial to first understand the causes and effects of migration. San Diego
isn’t the only city impacted by immigrants; across the world, men,
women, and even youths leave their impoverished villages seeking higher
wages than in their hometowns. Perhaps more importantly, these
workers send much of their earnings, commonly called “remittances,”
back home to assist their struggling families.
Women from the Philippines travel to Saudi Arabia to work as maids. Men from Haiti sail to Miami, Florida in hopes to make money selling fish. A girl in Kenya, according to A Los Angeles Times article, forsook her future in education to be a nanny in Italy. What these people have in common is their desire to send their earnings back home to support those they love.
Conversely,
those who receive the remittances are given new life. According
to Dilip Ratha, a senior World Bank economist, “Close to a billion
people, one in every six on Earth, may receive some support from this
lifeline.” The World Bank estimates that overseas workers send a
total of more than $250 billion back to their homes each year.
Clearly, developing nations depend on this form of foreign aid.
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