Western Union
From East Broadway, Chinatown
Group members: Shreya, Diana, and Michael
Contents |
Introduction
In the beginning of the semester, our group focused on the northern portion of East Broadway between Catherine Street and Market Street. This portion of East Broadway is very commercial with businesses including restaurants, a law office, a florist, and pharmacies. The block also has banks as well as a Buddhist temple. Behind the storefronts, there are numerous unseen health clinics, herb shops, and hometown associations. Later in the semester, we did research on the money transferring establishments of East Broadway such as Western Union and Express Money-Link. The strong immigrant presence in East Broadway and the surrounding area has turned these financial establishments into key links allowing immigrants to maintain ties with those in their hometowns such as friends or family through the sending of remittances.
Western Union
According to Western Union’s website, The Western Union company, along with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, has more than 335,000 Agent locations in over 200 nations and territories. Western Union first began as a telegram business and has developed into a financial services business with features including electronic money transfer. In 2006 alone, Western Union dealt with 147 million consumer-to-consumer money transfers and 249 million consumer-to-business transactions. Western Union’s service allows customers to send and receive money across the globe. This money is mainly transferred through a global network of third-party Agents who use multi-currency money transfer processing systems. Western Union agents can be found in the world’s biggest cities as well as the most remote towns.
Express Money-Link
Today, there are several money transferring agents on East Broadway providing financial services. One of these money transferring agents is Express Money- Link. Express Money-Link allows residents to send money to China, particularly Fuzhou at relatively low prices. Until now, they can only send money from the US to China and not the other way around. They are closely linked with the Bank of China in Fuzhou and conduct their business through the Bank.
If a person wants to send money to Fuzhou, all he or she needs to do is go to one of the many different Express Money-Links located on East Broadway and send money (only cash is accepted) to his or her relative in Fuzhou by paying the wiring rate. Then after a couple of days, the relative in Fuzhou can go to Bank of China and withdraw the amount that was initially sent.
Unlike Western Union, Express Money-Link does not send money to different countries around the world. The Express Money-Link that we studied for our project, at 32 E. Broadway, only sends money back to Fuzhou, China. This Express Money-Link location is relatively new, being open for only 5 months, and shares its space with a video store in the basement area of one of the buildings. This Express Money-Link does provide cheaper wiring rates than Western Union. Also the Express Money-Link that we studied could only send up to $2,900 at a $17 wiring rate at a time. The informational literature in this Express Money Link was predominantly in Chinese and English.
Money Transfers and Transnationalism
In the past, people who immigrated were forced to abandon their families and villages back home. With limited resources, it was difficult for them to return home or communicate with relatives. However, Chinese immigrants today who are living in a new country half way around the world can still hold an active role back in their hometown. With easy communication made possible via the Internet, telephone, mail, and return trips, immigrants can know exactly what is happening in their communities.
The income that they earn can easily be sent home to support family, repair buildings and roads, and improve the community as a whole. This leads to a chain migration effect within communities that have high immigration rates where people anticipate coming to America to make money. Some people spend years in advance learning English relevant to the jobs they can get once they immigrate. The remittances that get sent home usually result in competition between families and villages to see who can afford the better, larger homes.
Western Union and its competitors such as Express Money-Link offer money transferring services that enable transnationalism between immigrants and their families back home. With reasonable rates and simple forms to fill out, even immigrants who do not speak English can easily send money back to China. Western Union has also started to sell prepaid international calling cards that allow immigrants to call home for rates as low as $5 for 500 minutes.
Conclusion
All these different money wiring and transferring agents play a significant role in the whole migration process. Especially in East Broadway, it is very common to locate one of these agents amongst every 15 stores. According to a New York Times article "Western Union boasts of 320,000 locations worldwide." This just shows the impact of Western Union all over the world. Be it here in East Broadway, New York or Fuzhou, China, Western Union keeps families connected and acts as a bridge in the migration process.
Block Mapping of East Broadway between Catherine St. and Market St.
Block Slideshow