Do all Hispanics send money home?

The Pew Research Center is a clearinghouse for vast amounts of scientific data about any aspect of the human condition one can imagine. The Pew Hispanic Center is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center. The Hispanic Center gathers and analyzes data about the life patterns of Latinos in America.

A recent study compiled data regarding the attachment of Latinos to their native country. Many Latino immigrants maintain a connection to their native country by a) sending money, b) visiting or c) telephoning relatives, but the extent of these activities varies immensely, according to Roger Waldinger of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Only 9 per cent do all three of these transnational activities. They would be considered highly attached to their home country.

Twenty-eight per cent are involved in none of the three activities.

Most Latino immigrants, (63 per cent) show moderate attachment to their home country and engage in one or two of the activities.

Whether Latino immigrants maintain active, moderate or limited connections is an important marker of their attitudes toward the U.S., their native country and their own lives as migrants, states Waldinger, who goes on to state that, a clear majority see their future in the U.S. rather than the countries from which they come.

Not surprisingly, Latino immigrants who have been in the U.S. for decades and those who arrived here as children show less connection to their native country. But there are significant differences based on country of origin with Colombians and Dominicans maintaining stronger connections than Mexicans. Cubans have the least amount of contact.

In a separate study, statistics show that the current recession is having an especially severe impact on employment for immigrant Hispanics. As a result, there is a decline in the amount of money that Hispanic immigrants sent to relatives in their country of origin in the past year.

Native-born Hispanics and Blacks also have felt a stronger impact from the recession than the rest of the country.