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October 19, 2006

Immigrant Poor Send More Foreign Aid than US Govt

The United States government spends less money on foreign aid as a percentage of its budget than almost any other developed nation in the world. And even the nominal amount it officially spends- $23.7 billion in 2007 -- is tied overwhelmingly to military and political alliances -- with Irsarel receiving $2.49 billion in aid of which $2.25 billion is military assistance and Egypt receiving $1.78 billion, of which $1.28 billion in military assistance.

So the actual amount of humanitarian aid by the US government is pathetic on a global scale.

But thanks to immigration and remittances to home countries, US immigrants will send $45 billion this year to Latin America alone.

If the US would devote serious resources to strengthening the economies of Latin America-- countries that past US policies and proxy wars helped devastate -- we wouldn't have the massive immigration from those countries. But the problem may be partially self-correcting as aid from the immigrants themselves has emerged as key economic support for those countries.

Posted by Nathan at October 19, 2006 07:35 AM