This hidden tax will drain billions from the world’s poorest families

Immigrant rights activist Guerline Jozef can’t count the number of frantic texts, calls, and emails she gets daily from Haitians in the United States terrified that some day soon, they won’t be able to feed their families anymore.

Not just those in the US, but their “mother, sister, niece, a cousin, a church member” back in Haiti, who heavily depend on their breadwinner abroad to survive.

“Entire neighborhoods are being provided for by the diaspora,” said Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance in San Diego. “Haiti is literally being held together by those of us who are outside of the country and sending money back home.”

Haiti’s decades-long humanitarian crisis deepens each day, forcing immigrants to send record-high payments back home in recent years. Each Haitian immigrant l