Every Friday afternoon, Rosa, who works as a housekeeper in Miami, goes to a convenience store to send $250 to her children in Nicaragua. In a country where the average income is about $100 a month, her hard-earned money goes a long way. For one thing, it enables her kids, who live with her sister, to go to a private school, use private transportation, buy clothing and food, and pay for utilities. The rest of the money goes to supporting her elderly parents there.

Like Rosa's (not her real name), there are millions of families in Latin America that live off the money their loved ones send home from abroad. This year the remittances sent to the region from all over the world are expected to reach $60 billion; $45 billion alone will come from the United States. That's significantly more than the $30 billion immigrants sent home in 2004.

But while there are countries that virtually live off the earnings of their compatriots in the U.S., a new study shows that the immigrants are actually leaving most of their money right here. The remittances to Latin America account for less than 10 percent of immigrant earnings, estimated at about $500 billion annually. That means 90 percent of the money earned by immigrant workers stays in the United States and helps move local economies.

The survey, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund -- the leading source of lending for social development programs in Latin America and the Caribbean -- has a lot of interesting findings.

For instance: The largest increases in remittances come from areas other than the typical immigrant states, like California, Texas, New York and Florida. Remittances from New Mexico practically tripled in the past two years. In Louisiana they went from $61 million to $208 million, partly because of all the immigrants who arrived there to help in the reconstruction of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. In Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa, the money transfers increased 80 percent.

This shows that immigrants are willing to go wherever jobs are available, but also that they have become a powerful economic force in this hemisphere. Last year Mexico received more than $20 billion in remittances, making it the third leading source of income, after oil exports and manufacturing. Brazil received more than $6 billion, Colombia more than $4 billion and Guatemala almost $3 billion. Dominicans in the U.S. sent home $2.6 billion in 2005, and the $2.8 billion in remittances sent home to El Salvador have become the country's biggest source of income from abroad. The $860 million that Nicaragua receives amounts to 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

With that kind of money floating around, it's no wonder so many companies are trying to get a piece of the action. The remittance business has become much more competitive. It's no longer just convenience stores and money-transfer companies, but also banks and other lending institutions that are marketing their services to immigrants, trying to get them to send their remittances through formal financial institutions.

The language barrier, legal status or just lack of understanding of the system keeps many immigrants away from banks. But some banks with subsidiaries on both sides of the border are now trying to gain their confidence, simplify the process and reduce requirements to give immigrants access to services that can help them build and protect their assets, such as savings accounts, insurance, loans and mortgages. As a result, immigrants' investments in both small businesses and real estate in their homelands and in their newly adopted country have increased dramatically.

Governments in Latin America defend the rights of their citizens living in the U.S. not just for humanitarian reasons, but because of how they help keep their economies growing. In the U.S., it's unfortunate that immigrants are perceived by some as a burden on our country, because when it comes down to profiting from their hard work, the dollars they earn go a long way on both sides of the border.

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(Maria Elena Salinas is the author of “I AM MY FATHER'S DAUGHTER: LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT SECRETS.” Reach her at www 
.mariaesalinas.com)

© 2006 by Maria Elena Salinas

Distributed by King Features Syndicate