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I live in Washington, D.C.
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But I grew up in Sindhekela, a village in Orissa,
in India.
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My father was a government worker.
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My mother could not read or write, but she
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would say to me, "A king is worshiped only in his
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own kingdom. A poet is respected everywhere."
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So I wanted to be a poet when I grew up.
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But I almost didn't go to college
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until an aunt offered financial help.
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I went to study in ___,
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the largest town in the region,
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where, already in college, I saw a
television for the first time.
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I had dreams of going to the United States
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for higher studies.
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When the opportunity came,
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I crossed two oceans, with borrowed money
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for airfare, and only a 20 dollar bill in my pocket.
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In the U.S., I worked in a research center,
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part-time, while taking graduate classes in economics.
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And with the little I earned, I would
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finance myself and then I would send
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money home to my brother and my father.
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My story is not unique.
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There are millions of people who migrate each year.
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With the help of the family, they cross oceans,
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they cross deserts, they cross rivers, they cross mountains.
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They risk their lives to realize a dream,
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and that dream is as simple as having a
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decent job somewhere so they can send money home
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and help the family,
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which has helped them before.
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There are 232 million international migrants in the world.
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These are people who live in a country
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other than their country of birth.
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If there was a country made up of
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only international migrants,
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that would be larger in population
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than Brazil.
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That would be larger, in its size
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of the economy, than France.
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Some 180 million of them, from poor countries,
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send money home regularly.
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Those sums of money are called remittences.
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Here is a fact that might surprise you:
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413 billion dollars, 413 billion dollars
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was the amount of remittences sent last year
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by migrants to developing countries.
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Migrants from developing countries,
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money sent to developing countries--
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413 billion dollars.
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That's a remarkable number because
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that is three times the size of
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the total of development aid money.
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And yet, you and I,
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my colleagues in Washington,
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we endlessly debate and
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discuss about development aid,
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while we ignore remittences as small change.
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True, people send 200 dollars per month,
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on average. But, repeated month after month,
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by millions of people,
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these sums of money add up to rivers
of foreign currency.
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So, India last year received 72 billion dollars, larger than
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its IT exports.
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Egypt, in Egypt remittences are three times
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the size of revenues from the Suez Canal.
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In Tajikistan, remittences are forty-two percent of GDP.
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In poorer countries, smaller countries, fragile countries, conflict
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afflicted countries, remittences are a lifeline,
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as in Somalia or in Haiti.
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No wonder these flows have huge
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impacts on economies and on poor people.
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Remittences, unlike private investment money,
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they don't flow back at the first
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sign of trouble in the country.
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They actually act like an insurance.
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When the family is in trouble,
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facing hardship, facing hard times,
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remittences increase, they act like an insurance.
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Migrants send more money then.
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Unlike development aid money,
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that must go through official agencies
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and governments, remittences
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directly reach the poor,
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reach the family,
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and often with business advice.
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So, in Nepal, the share of poor
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people was forty-two percent in 1995,
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the share of poor people in the population.
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By 2005, it declined later, at a
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time of political crisis, economic crisis.
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The share of poor people went down to thirty-one percent.
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That decline in poverty, most of it,
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about half of it, is believed to be
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because of remittences from India,
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a poor country.
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In El Salvador, the school dropout
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rate among children is lower
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in families that receive remittences.
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In Mexico and Sri Lanka,
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the birth weight of children is higher
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among families that receive remittences.
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Remittences are dollars wrapped with care.
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Migrants send money home for food,
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for buying necessities, for building houses,
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for funding education, for funding
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healthcare for the elderly, for business
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investments for friends and family.
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Migrants send even more money home
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for special occasions like a surgery
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or a wedding. And migrants also send
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money, perhaps far too many times,
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for unexpected funerals that
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they cannot attend.
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Much as these flows do all that good,
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there are barriers to these
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flows of remittences, these
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400 billion dollars of remittences.
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Foremost among them is
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the exorbitant costs of sending money home.
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Money transfer companies structure
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their fees to milk the poor.
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They will say, "up to 500 dollars
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that you want to send, we will charge you
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30 dollars fixed."
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If you are poor and have only 200 dollars to send,
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you have to pay that 30 dollar fee.
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The global average cost of sending
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money is eight percent.
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That means you send 100 dollars,
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the family on the other side receives only
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92 dollars.
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To send money to Africa,
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the cost is even higher:
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twelve percent.
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To send money within Africa,
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the cost is even higher:
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over twenty percent.
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For example, sending money from Benin
to Nigeria.
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And then there is the case of Venezuela, where,
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because of exchange controls,
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you send 100 dollars and you
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are lucky if the family on the other side
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receives even 10 dollars.
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Of course, nobody sends money to Venezuela
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through the official channel.
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It all goes in suitcases.
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Whereever costs are high,
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money goes underground.
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And what is worse,
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many developing countries actually
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have a blanket ban on sending money
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out of the country.
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Many rich nations also have a
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blanket-ban on sending money
to specific countries.
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So, is it that there are no options,
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no better options to send money?
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There are.
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Mpesa in Kenya enables people to send money
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and receive money at a fixed cost of only
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60 cents per transaction.
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U.S. Fed started a program with Mexico
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to enable money service businesses
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to send money to Mexico
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for a fixed cost of only 67 cents per transaction.
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And yet, these faster, cheaper, better options
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can't be applied internationally
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because of the fear of money laundering,
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even though there is little data
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to support any connection, any significant
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connection between money laundering
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and these small remittence transactions.
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Many international banks now
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are weary of hosting bank accounts of
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money service businesses, especially
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those serving Somalia.
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Somalia, a country where the
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part-time income is only 250 dollars per year, 250 dollars per year.
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Monthly remittences, on average, to Somalia
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is larger than that amount.
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Remittences are the lifeblood of Somalia.
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And yet, this is an example of the right
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hand getting a lot of aid,
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while the left is cutting the lifeblood
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to that economy, through regulations.
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Then there is the case of poor people
from villages, like me.
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In the villages, the only place where you can
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get money is through the Post Office.
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Most of the governments in the world
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have allowed their post offices to have
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exclusive partnership with money transfer companies.
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So, if I have to send money to my
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father in the village, I must send money
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through that particular money transfer company,
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even if the cost is high.
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I cannot go to a cheaper option.
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This has to go.
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So, what can international organizations,
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social entrepreneurs do to reduce [the] cost
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of sending money home?
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First, relax regulations on small remittances
under 1000 dollars.
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Governments should recognize that
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small remittances are not money laundering.
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Second, governments should abolish exclusive partnerships
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between their post office and the money
transfer company.
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For that matter, between the Post Office
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and any national banking system that
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has a large network that serves the poor.
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In fact, they should promote competition,
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open up the partnership so that
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we will bring down costs like we did,
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they did, in the telecommunications industry.
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You have seen what has happened there.
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Third, large non-profit philanthropic organizations
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should create a remittance platform
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on a non-profit basis.
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They should create a non-profit
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remittance platform to serve the money transfer
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companies so that they can send money at a low cost,
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while complying with all the complex
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regulations all over the world.
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The development community should
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set a goal of reducing remittance costs
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to one percent from the current eight percent.
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If we reduce costs to one percent,
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that would release a saving of 30 billion per year.
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30 billion dollars, that's larger than the entire
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bilateral aid budget going to Africa per year.
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That is larger than, or almost similar to,
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the total aid budget of the United States government,
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the largest donor in the planet.
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Actually, the saving would be larger
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than 30 billion because remittance channels
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are also used for aid, trade and investment purposes.
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Another major impediment to the
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flow of remittances reaching the family
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is the large and exorbitant
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and illegal cost of recruitment,
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fees that migrants pay, migrant workers
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pay to labor and ___ in the job.
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I was in Dubai a few years ago.
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I visited a camp for workers.
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It was eight in the evening, dark, hot, humid.
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Workers were coming back from
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their grueling day of work,
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and I struck a conversation
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with a Bangledeshi construction worker.
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He was preoccupied that he is sending
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money home, he has been
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sending money home for a few months now,
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and the money is mostly going
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to the recruitment agent, to the labor agent
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who found him that job.
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And in my mind, I could picture
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the wife waiting for
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the monthly remittence.
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The remittence arrives.
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She takes the money and hands
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it over to the recruitment agent,
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while the children are looking on.
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This has to stop.
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It is not only contraction workers from Bangledesh,
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it is all the workers. There are millions of migrant
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workers who suffer from this problem.
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A construction worker from Bangledesh,
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on an average, pays about 4000 dollars in recruitment fees
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for a job that gives him only 2000 dollars
per year in income.
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That means that for the two years or three years
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of his life, he is basically sending money
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for the recruitment fees.
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The family doesn't get to see any of it.
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It is not only Dubai, it is the dark
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underbelly of every major city in the world.
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It is not only Bangledeshi contraction workers,
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it is workers from all over the world.
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It is not only men.
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Women are especially vulnerable to
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recruitment malpractices.
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One of the most exciting and newest
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thing happening in the area of remittences
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is how to mobilize, through innovation,
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diaspora saving and diaspora giving.
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Migrants send money home,
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but they also save a large amount of
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money where they live.
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Annually, migrant savings are estimated
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to be 500 billion dollars, 500 billion dollars.
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Most of that money is parked in
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bank deposits that give you zero percent interest rate.
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If a country were to come and offer three percent
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or four percent interest rate, and then say
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that the money would be used for building schools,
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roads, airports, train systems
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in the country of origin, a lot
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of migrants would be interested in
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parting with their money because
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its not only financial gains that
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gives them an opportunity
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to stay engaged with their country's development.
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Remittence channels can be used
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to sell these bonds to migrants
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because when they come on
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monthly basis to send remittences,
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that's when you can actually sell
it to them.
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You can also do the same
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for mobilizing diaspora giving.
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I would love to invest in a
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bullet train system in India
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and I would love to contribute to efforts
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to fight Malaria in my village.
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Remittences are a great way of
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sharing prosperity between places
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in a targeted way that benefits
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those who need them most.
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Remittences empower people.
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We must do all we can to make
remittences,
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and recruitment,
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safer and cheaper.
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And it can be done.
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As for myself, I have been
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away from India for two decades now.
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My wife is a Venezuelan.
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My children are Americans.
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Increasingly, I feel like a global citizen.
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And yet, I am growing nostalgic
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about my country of birth.
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I want to be in India and in the U.S. at the same time.
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My parents are not there anymore.
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My brothers and sisters have moved on.
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There is no real urgency for me to send money home,
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and yet, time to time,
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I send money home to friends,
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to relatives, to the village
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to be there, to stay engaged--
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that's part of my identity.
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And, I'm still striving to be a poet
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for the hardworking migrants
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and their struggle to break free
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from the cycle of poverty.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)