Ames Progressive

A boycott started by over 150 immigrant organizations across the country has targeted the money transfer giant Western Union. The boycott has criticized Western Union for charging immigrants excessive fees and non-standard exchange rates for money they send home. “We aim to get justice for immigrants and allow them to build the wealth that they have in their own communities,” said Kayhan Irani, the New York-New Jersey coordinator for the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA), on Democracy Now! September 14, 2007. TIGRA and other boycott organizers have stated that Western Union makes over 100 billion dollars annually from the fees on migrant workers’ money. A worker may be charged $15-20 to send money home, although the transer costs Western union only $3-4. The World Bank has said that Western Union could lower its fees by a third and still have a healthy profit margin over its competitors. In a Foreign Policy in Focus article titled “Remittances: For Love and Money”, Francis Calpotura quotes studies showing that if all money transfer fees, not just Western Union’s, were cut in half, 33 million people could be lifted out of poverty in the developing world. If Western Union cut its fees in half it would still be making a 100% profit.