Stop 9: Sonali Bank
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The Sonali Bank, (sonali means gold in Bengali) is a Bangladeshi bank, and is a good example of another side of the immigration story. This bank enabled the local Bangladeshi population to send money back home. Sending money back home or 'remittances' has been a matter of course for immigrants since the first waves settled in the area.
It is useful to note that remittances sent to developing countries, amount to more than double official international aid, debt relief and foreign direct investment put together. Estimates of remittances worldwide vary and ranged from $200 to $400 billion in 2006. Economists also suggest this figure is increasing by 30% a year and that only takes into account formal flows of remittances, for example through banks and money transfer shops. However, many migrants send money home informally through friends and family or through unregistered agent systems such as Habwalar.
In 2004 world flows of remittances to Bangladesh were worth 4 billion, forming 6% of GDP. That is 3 times more than foreign aid and a major source of income for poor families in Bangladesh.
One of our London Behind the Scenes volunteers, Millie, is from Ghana and she sends money home to pay for her younger brother's school fees and to build a house with all the mod cons – something people take for granted in the West. For many migrants even the lowest paid jobs provide an opportunity to earn cash to send home.
Unlike Western aid donors, migrants do not prescribe what their friends and family can spend the money on, and they keep on giving long after the television images of poverty and disasters have left our screens. This means remittances are more stable and recipients can spend the money on what they need or want. It means they can depend upon it more and it matches the aspirations rather than the poverty of ambition that informs so much of western charitable giving. Remittances are a real form of solidarity with no strings attached and no monitoring forms; just a desire to see their friends and families have a better life. So if we want to fight poverty and support North South equality in fact opening borders makes sense.
