When you think about Global Development, you might not first think about Western Union. But you should. Migrants from poor countries sent home $300 billion last year via Western Union, which is almost three times more than all foreign aid budgets combined.

Western Union has positioned itself as an advocate of migrant workers, who make up a large portion of their customer base. Such a large portion, in fact, that Western Union’s stock is driven by border migration forecasts. Western Union’s chief executive, Christina A. Gold, said “Global migration is the cornerstone of how we’ve grown.”

Some say that Western Union is providing an important service to migrants, giving them a safe way to send money home. There are critics, too. The hefty fees associated with sending the money have drawn complaints that they are taking advantage of the poor. Also, other critics are uneasy about the company’s role in profiting from and even encouraging illegal immigration.

Either way, it’s hard to deny Western Union’s influence on development economics and the current immigration debates.

Read the New York Times article to learn more about it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Immigration, Global Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.