Leonardo Blair, Staff ReporterAN INCREASING dependence on cash remittances from overseas may be contributing to fewer persons actively seeking available minimum wage jobs.
Noel Greenland, public relations and communications manager at Western Union, said business since the start of the year has been 'expanding'.
Remittances to the island in 2002 increased by a whopping US$245.5 million over the year 2001 to register a total inflow of US$1,204.5 million. A total of US$959 million was sent to the island in 2001.
Western Union is the largest remittance company in Jamaica, handling an estimated 95 per cent of the business in Jamaica.
When The Sunday Gleaner visited some of the remittance agencies last week, there were crowds of sometimes impatient people doing business.
It's Thursday and Stacey Brown has been standing in line at the Western Union Office on King Street in down town Kingston for just over half hour. The lines are long and the room is crowded with mostly young and middle-aged women.
Stacey has been unemployed for two years now but she is not looking for a job. The unemployed mother of two is receiving a regular supply of remittances from two separate 'babyfathers'. One sends her the Jamaican equivalent of heavy English pounds while the other living in New York, delivers the US 'Benjamins'.
"Right now my income is basically from the remittances," says Stacey. "I get remittance from England and I get remittance from New York."
It's been like this for Stacey for the last two years after pricey rent for a booth at an 'up town' beauty parlour forced her to give up her hairdressing business. She had been investing some of the remittance money in the business, but the returns were small.
"I couldn't get enough customers to pay the rent. I was getting the rent from abroad but it did just cost too much so mi stop it," says Stacey.
"I'm going into a different career now. I started a practical nursing course in January so I can get a job. I think that will be better for me," she says
nonchalantly.
But for now, Stacey is in no rush. She collects money at the Western Union twice weekly from each man. The smallest amount she has ever received to date came from the 'babyfather' in England 50 pounds. The largest sum she cashed in came from the New Yorker J$200,000, just last Christmas.
"I banked some and I use up some," she said. Her smallest son attends a preparatory school she says and the bills at her Portmore residence is high.
There are many jobs that she has seen and wanted to apply for but, "mi don't have no subject," she says. "Mi drop outta school from mi a 15 when me have mi first child," says the 26-year-old.
But if the remittances should stop coming today, she says, she would consider working at KFC or Burger King but only if she had no other choice.
"If it come down to that mi naw say no because a work. I have to support my kids," she says. "If it weren't for these remittances I don't know what I would do."
Claudia Crutchley, 28, also makes the trip to the Western Union but less frequently. She too has been unemployed for more than two years but believes she "will soon get a job."
Like Stacey, there are jobs that she would like to do but she doesn't "have the subjects" for them just yet. She recently did some exams and she is awaiting the results. In the meantime though she'd rather remain unemployed with her steady remittances until she can get a decent job.
"Those jobs that don't require any subjects pay too small. It's not worth it," she says. The father of her two children resides in the United States and sends her a minimum of US$50 to a maximum of US$300 every time she collects at the Western Union for her young sons.
If the remittances should stop though she says, "I know I would have to accept the low-paying job."
Remittances help keep thousands of Caribbean families alive, says Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies. They are the biggest source of foreign currency for countries like Haiti, and the second-largest source for the Dominican Republic.
However, in a report last year, Dr. Davies pointed out that money transfers could limit long-term development by increasing dependence on foreign cash flows. The danger he said was that more poor families would see remittances as their best hope for survival and they would stop looking for work.
