Thursday, November 22

Western Union

Western Union Empire Moves Migrant Cash Home (New York Times)

This is fascinating stuff -- from the size and scope of their operation, to their creative marketing tactics, to their focus on promoting illegal immigration as way to maintain a customer base.

Earlier: Illegal immigration
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

1 comment:

Sara said...

It might be bold to say that Western Union and their competitors are taking efforts to "promote illegal immigration." I think some folks accused Bank of America of that (or of just being "un-american") several months ago when they expanded their financial services to un-documented workers. These financial insititutions are interested in assisting migrants/immigrants, that's for sure. Thinking long term, to suggest that they promote illegal immigration would also suggest that they lobby for more strict immigration rules. Strict rules would be an incentive for more illegal immigration versus legal immigration, no? Western Union lobbies for a more flexible, open door policy, which would lead to a more predictable and secure market for their profits. If we were to zoom in even further, I bet they prefer guest worker type policies rather than permanent residency opporuntities; their business model relies on the fact that worker migrants maintain ties to their home country - if not, they won't send money. Research shows that the longer the immigrants stay, the less money they are sending home...

November 28, 2007 at 4:40 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)