Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (HRNW) — In nearly every corner of the globe, people are spending more on food and fuel, rent and transportation.
But inflation isn’t affecting people equally. For migrants with relatives relying on money they send back, higher prices are pinching families twice: at home and abroad.
Migrant workers who send cash to loved ones overseas are often saving less because they’re forced to spend more as prices rise. For some, the only option is hustling harder, working weekends and nights, taking on second jobs. For others, it means cutting back on once-basic things like meat and fruit so they can send what’s left of their savings to family back home, some of whom are struggling with hunger or conflict.
“I used to save something, about $200 weekly. Now, I can barely save $100 per week. I live by the day,” said Carlos Huerta, a 45-year-old from Mexico working as a driver in New York City.
Across the Atlantic, Lissa Jataas, 49, sends about 200 euros ($195) from her desk job in Cyprus to family in the Philippines each month. To save money, she looks for cheaper food at the grocery store and buys clothes from a charity shop.
“It’s about being resilient,” she said.
Economies reeling from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and effects of climate change were hit again by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which sent food and energy prices soaring.
Those costs plunged 71 million more people worldwide into poverty in the weeks following the February invasion, which cut off critical grain shipments from the Black Sea region, according to the United Nations Development Program.