[Reader-list] Migration, Money Flow and Western Union

[Patrice Riemens]

As is quite usual with the NYT, this otherwise very interesting article
glosses over an important piece of information within the issue of money
transfers, vital for migrant labourers the world over: how Western Union
profited, if it was not directly instrumental to, the relentless attacks
against, and the partial demise of, informal money transfer systems and
structures (known in S.Asia, and even quite generally, as _Havala_)
migrants were using these en masse before 911. Havala, which is/ was as
fast and reliable as Western Union, but considerably cheaper, was
demonised and criminalised after 911 as a conduit for terrorist money,
and, in 'advanced' economies at last, largely disbanded. Very little has
been written (afaik) about this.

> November 22, 2007
> Border Crossings
> Western Union Empire Moves Migrant Cash Home
> By JASON DePARLE
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/world/22western.html?
> _r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
>
> WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — To glimpse how migration is changing the world,
> consider Western Union, a fixture of American lore that went bankrupt
> selling telegrams at the dawn of the Internet age but now earns
> nearly $1 billion a year helping poor migrants across the globe send
> money home.
>