Western Union said today that it will see loss of growth because of the immigration reform debate currently going on. They even go as far as thinking people will believe that legal immigrants are scared to use their service to send money back to Mexico. I find that hard to believe and a bunch of spin that this company is putting out to turn people against attempting to crack down on illegal aliens.
The reality is that there can only be a few reasons this company is not going to grow as fast as expected.
- A lot of their current business and future growth is based around making money off of illegal aliens, which if true then they deserve to go down the tubes
- Poor management and planning
- Costs too high
- Increased ccompetition
This company has every advantage. They have locations, they have workers and they have money for growth. If their whole future business plan was to bilk illegal aliens sending money home to Mexico (called "remittances") then nobody should have any pity for them or listen to their whining when they lose the business of their illegal clients.
If anything, some heads should roll at the company. Especially those who planned this as their next source of revenue growth for the coming years.
Washington Post
The company had said in July that second-quarter results for the money transfer business were hurt by the immigration debate, as both legal and illegal immigrants feared that wiring money back to their home countries would attract government attention.
...
Concern about growth in the payment transfer business also weighed on shares of Western Union competitor MoneyGram International Inc., whose stock was off nearly 4 percent at $31.83 a share on the NYSE.
Their answer about legal aliens being afraid to send money home is total BS. Legal immigrants in this country have nothing to fear. They have legitimate documents and even if they were looked into it would quickly be dismissed.
There's a whole industry based around exploiting illegal aliens when sending money back home. Of course these companies could care less about the impact of illegal aliens on this country. After all the government, taxpayers and workers of America pick up the tab in the end, leaving these companies to just benefit from the increase of customers, legal or illegal.
No pity for them!
There is no evidence that remittances have decreased as a result of the recent paranoia. Western Union is expensive, and in recent years low-cost money transfer agents have been entering the market in areas heavily populated with immigrants thereby taking market share. Banks from Mexico, El Salvador and even Honduras have transfer centers in the US.
And it is no crime or moral shortcoming to permit a human being to wire money to a foreign country. There is no requirement for an individual to present documents for transferring small sums of money, and there is no requirement for Western Union to verify the legality of the individuals sending money. To the contrary, it would be a violation of law for Western Union to discriminate.
Posted by: Ralph on September 19, 2006 08:54 AM
Huh. Ever since Western Union killed the telegram (Jan 1 of this year, I think), I say the hell with 'em. >:-(
/tongue in cheek, but only slightly
Posted by: Mary in LA on September 19, 2006 03:56 PM
