The Land of Opportunity
This week we celebrated the Fourth of July. Hot dogs, swimming pools, fireworks – how better to ring in this annual occasion and take a few days to remember our country’s history? As I sat along Boston’s Charles River banks this Sunday evening, I couldn’t help but reflect on our country’s core principles of freedom, opportunity, and equality.
Moreover, my thoughts centered on those who come to the U.S. every day to realize the “American dream.” But we all know that U.S. soil doesn’t guarantee a life free of struggle.
Imagine two scenarios. In one, a Venezuelan women moves to Miami with her husband. She has limited English fluency and little personal savings, as her husband handles their finances. But she wants to begin a small sewing business to keep herself busy and contribute to the household income. In the second scenario, a young man comes to the United States from Ecuador. He has his Masters degree, nearly twenty years of business experience, perfect English fluency, and a hefty savings. He hopes to open a leather importing business in Boston.
Despite their many differences, these two individuals have two things in common: their lack of credit history and knowledge of the U.S. financial system. And because of these key similarities, neither can get an affordable loan.
These descriptions detail the experiences of two ACCION USA clients. Lack of credit history is only one of many challenges immigrants face when trying to access financing. Language barriers are also great, as detailed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent report, entitled Factors Affecting the Financial Literacy of Individuals with Limited English Proficiency. The report explains that language barriers can prevent individuals from understanding financial products’ terms, disputing charges or fees, managing accounts, and simply accessing financial education opportunities. Furthermore, many immigrants carry a negative correlation with financial institutions, due to prior experiences or institutional fraud and instability in their countries.
ACCION USA has many programs and services in place to address these challenges. For example, our small credit builder loans are specifically designed to help individuals with no credit history begin to build one. Our financial education workshops help immigrants understand not only how to build credit but also why building credit is important in the United States. And we continue to work closely with groups such as the Massachusetts Refugee Enterprise Achievement Program to establish ACCION USA as a trusted and reliable name among immigrant communities.
Through these programs and relationships, ACCION USA continues to help immigrants achieve the full “American dream.”
Tags: accion usa, english, Financial Education, fourth of july, immigrant, literacy, massachusetts, miami, report
Reverse Remittances and U.S. Microfinance
When I interview ACCION USA clients to gather information for their Kiva profiles, they nearly always mention having a family member in another country relying on them to send small portions of their income, or “remittances,” back home. That’s why this week’s New York Times article on “reverse remittances” struck a chord with me. The article explains how families abroad are now having to send monetary support to their family members in the U.S. While immigrants originally came here to search for better economic opportunities, nowadays they are finding the opposite.
Is returning to their home countries an option? For some, it is – but it’s not that easy. It may take immense effort and sacrifice to scrape together the thousands of dollars needed to move to a new country. Many immigrants who come to the U.S. give up their homes and possessions in their native country and trade them in for an entirely new life. They may have married and had children who would be disrupted by a move to another country they barely know.
Immigrants are a vital part of our economy – in New York, for example, over the last decade, immigrant-dominated neighborhoods such as Washington Heights and Sunset Park have seen increases in new firms at rates close to 50%, and job growth of 30% (compared to overall city job growth of 7%).1 Entrepreneurship is an engine of employment, as small businesses provide self-employment for the business owner and are responsible for 75% of net new job creation in the U.S.2
Now, more than ever, small business ownership is a way for immigrants to take control of their economic future and take the initiative to provide employment opportunities for themselves and others in their communities. As unemployment grows in the U.S., ACCION USA’s mission to support these entrepreneurs and, by extension, the economic development of their communities, gains more urgency.
1A World of Opportunity, Center for an Urban Future. February 2007.
2MicroTest Outcomes 2008. The Aspen Institute – FIELD Program