THIS YEAR, remittances sent home by migrants reached $300 billion worldwide. That’s $300 billion toward food, medicine, and the support of local development efforts. But business and government are plotting to rob immigrants of their hard-earned money. This is why immigrants have set their sights on Western Union.

The remittance industry, along with national governments, take advantage of migrants’ forced displacement to profit off their separation from family. Money-transfer companies recognize that immigrants have few options when sending money: Vulnerable low-income immigrant communities must rely on predatory financial institutions to send money home. Such companies, unlike banks, remain unregulated by the Community Reinvestment Act, and so are not mandated to give anything back to the communities they serve.

National governments see remittances as a new financial stream that they need to keep flowing; remittances to impoverished countries now account for three times the amount of overseas development assistance from rich countries. Governments have set up programs not only to encourage workers to seek employment abroad, but are providing matching funds when those same workers send money home.

In Mexico, the government has set up a “Tres por Uno” program that contributes three times as much money as remitters send back. The resulting fund pays for basic infrastructure such as roads and irrigation ditches that are really the responsibility of the state, not emigrants. These same emigrants have little say over how the “Tres por Uno” money is ultimately spent, with the state government administering the program. This program has recently come to be supported by Western Union, which dubs its contribution “Cuatro por Uno,” or four-for-one.

What is problematic about this set of economic policies aimed at profiting from migrant labor is that the migrants themselves have little say in the matter. Harmful economic policies under corporate-driven globalization (e.g., NAFTA and now the CAFTA trade agreements) have compelled many to leave their homes to seek better economic opportunities in the United States. Their families back home depend on remittances from the migrants to the United States.

To challenge this paradigm, immigrant groups have announced efforts to intensify their boycott against Western Union, a boycott launched last September. They are boycotting the company until Western Union agrees to adopt a Transnational Community Benefits Agreement. The agreement would force the company to partner in genuine community reinvestment, lower its fees, and establish fairer exchange rates. Immigrant groups have entered negotiations with other companies in the money-transfer industry interested in signing a TCBA with TIGRA. Here in Providence, we recognized this day with a forum where dozens of immigrants and native-born people gathered to review the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to discuss how Western Union’s pricing structure contradicts the spirit of that historic document.

The boycott has already recruited more than 200 immigrant organizations across the United States, with local boycotts launched in at least a dozen cities. Key transnational migrant networks support the campaign, with launches in Manila and Mexico City.

The federal Community Reinvestment Act mandates banks to sign community-benefit agreements, but no such law exists for the money-transfer industry. Yet vulnerable immigrant communities rely on predatory financial institutions like Western Union for money transfers, check cashing and payday loans. Much of the company’s profits come directly from these communities.

TIGRA has submitted a shareholder resolution to force Western Union to develop and implement a written policy for community reinvestment that would prioritize building social capital in immigrant communities. As the proposed resolution states, existing corporate practices “increase the risk our Company faces in the competitive consumer market.” Given that Western Union has seen its profits dwindle this year and its stock price fall, it may be time for the company to generate business the old-fashioned way: by listening to its customers.

This immigrant push to make the money-transfer industry more accountable is, however, only one part of a broader effort to work toward making immigration a choice, not a necessity. TIGRA is partnering with migrants worldwide to challenge the neo-liberal economic model that is profiteering off our love for our families.

Dania Flores-Heagney, of Woonsocket and originally from Guatemala, is a member of the Connections Co-op and serves on the Rhode Island Organizing Committee of TIGRA ( www.boycottwesternunion.net).