Throughout the Third World, a persistent myth endures: that American streets are paved with gold.
This belief sustains hope through poverty, offering the promise that reaching America’s land of opportunity will bring easy money and instant wealth. I know this to be true from personal experience—telephone conversations, emails, and Facebook posts have confirmed these aspirations repeatedly.
Yet the reality proves starkly different when one actually arrives in a place like Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Over the past decade, Central Americans—both those entering legally and illegally—discovered that life here is anything but easy. Many journeyed northward with dreams of comfortable living that would transform their families overnight. The majority were men: breadwinners, husbands, and responsible figures seeking to secure dollars for remittance back home through Western Union, Ria, or whatever multi-service center offered the best rates and convenience.
The trek north proved grueling, and conditions upon arrival grew even more challenging. These men struggled to earn substantial income while facing prohibitive living costs. Some grew distant from the very families they’d sacrificed to support, while inflation in their home countries eroded the value of their dollars. Certain men remarried after settling in; others descended into fast-living; still others simply became lost in this foreign land.
Consequently, remittances fell short of initial hopes.
Nevertheless, they sent money then and continue sending it now.
Last year, the Record documented that nearly $250 million in remittances departed the communities of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston and Everett in 2012 alone. Massachusetts as a state saw approximately $2 billion leave in that same year, with most funds destined for Central America—particularly El Salvador and Guatemala. Preliminary 2013 figures, which the paper continues gathering from state sources, suggest even larger amounts were remitted.
Consulates from those nations confirmed in that same report that their economies depend heavily on money family members receive from American relatives. Such transfers have become integral to their societies’ functioning.
Consider the consequences in those countries.
Assimilated natives—and indeed, anyone familiar with remittance-dependent economies—will tell you, perhaps only in confidence, that this cash influx has damaged their societies fundamentally. Property owners maintaining residences in their home countries report inability to find workers for maintenance. Formerly industrious people now prefer waiting for weekly Western Union deposits. Why labor when money flows in regularly without effort?
This phenomenon extends beyond Central America. It represents standard practice wherever remittance income comprises substantial portions of a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Another crisis emerges when massive money enters poor economies without corresponding production or legitimate earning. Food and housing prices skyrocket. Land values explode. Taxation increases sharply. Suddenly everything costs multiples of its former price, and incoming remittances stretch thinner. The more money sent, the less it accomplishes.
Then desperate telephone calls arrive: the money you sent proves insufficient. We need more.
Items costing $1 now demand $10.
Presently, hundreds of firsthand accounts describe dangerous, bloodthirsty gangs terrorizing populations—particularly women and young girls, we’re told.
Should this surprise anyone?
Years ago, responsible men, husbands, and breadwinners departed to earn American dollars and remit funds home, leaving behind no protectors for wives, ex-wives, mothers, and daughters. As the saying goes about unguarded hen houses: the fox thrives without opposition.
Those remaining consist of criminals deported from America or young men raised without fathers, lulled into complacency by remittance dependency. Worse still, organized drug cartels commandeer entire cities, operating criminal enterprises and stealing remittance funds.
Fleeing this chaos, hundreds of thousands of young adults and older teenagers currently cross the border seeking entry to America by any available method. While they certainly escape violence, many also seek employment to generate remittances homeward.
Two women speaking last week at the Collaborative articulated precisely this motivation—one stating explicitly that she needed to send money to her mother immediately. Naturally, dollars don’t stretch as they once did, and people require sustenance.
The remittance culture deserves examination within this discussion, yet no one addresses it. Broadway Chelsea functions as ground zero for both the unaccompanied minor debate and for capital flight. Millions upon millions depart the community annually via Broadway Chelsea alone. A single million of those dollars would revitalize Broadway’s business prospects. This mechanism cripples the community by redirecting all disposable income away from local spending and toward foreign transfers, devastating neighborhood commerce.
Several months back, I raised this issue directly with Gov. Deval Patrick during his Chelsea visit. In private conversation, I explained how this threatens all Gateway Cities and the nations receiving these funds.
He offered no solutions and appeared uncomfortable with the topic, though he redirected by asking what I would propose.
Here’s my recommendation: impose a $5 surcharge on every remittance transaction, directing revenue to a community fund covering increased services for unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable populations. People constantly ask how communities will finance this influx; here lies the answer. Wherever substantial remittances flow, unaccompanied minors inevitably follow. Moreover, those utilizing remittance systems typically represent the populations requiring expanded services. Property taxpayers supporting schools and municipal services rarely belong to demographics needing these expensive new programs. Is that distribution genuinely equitable?
Mr. Governor, that represents one necessary action—implemented immediately.
Without confronting this culture, the vicious cycle intensifies and suffering multiplies. The remittance system functions as a phantom, a deception enriching only the money-transfer companies and the governments or criminals at destination. It provides temporary assistance, never approaching the anticipated relief. Central America now endures the consequences: an economy importing billions annually without producing anything; families fractured across thousands of miles by complicated immigration systems; and the ultimate realization that streets simply aren’t paved with gold.