A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

A researcher interviewing Liberians in Providence, Rhode Island, documented Liberians getting calls
daily, sometimes five or six times, often from people who simply got their number from someone
in Liberia who knows them. 566 In keeping with the broad concept of “family” in Liberian culture,
remittances are often paid to multiple generations of extended family, including spouses, parents,
children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. 567 Remittances from a single individual in
the United States often support between 10 and 20 people back in Liberia. 568 The Providence study
described the following typical remitting pattern:
The participant sends around $300 every month to his wife and three
children in Ghana. Bi-monthly he also sends up to $300 dollars to a brother
in Liberia and the money is shared between this brother and his wife and
family, an uncle and his wife and family, and sometimes other siblings. He
sometimes sends extra for his father. Each month he may send up to another
$200 in response to specific requests he receives from siblings, cousins,
uncles, aunts as well as from unrelated friends in Ghana, Liberia and Cote
D’Ivoire. At Christmas and for Liberia’s Independence Day (July 26th) he
sends money particularly extensively, including extra money to be shared
among more people in his transfer to his brother. On top of this personal
sending, he has donated money to a collection for orphaned children in
Liberia. 569
Attempting to save money to send home can have a significant impact on the quality of life of Liberian
immigrants, many of whom also support large extended families in the United States.
[T]hat’s what we get when we’re there and everybody else is sending money
– your family is sending money, and then when you get here and you’re
not able to do that for your family right away – it becomes a problem. Our
people think, oh, I’m a failure to my family because I’m not able to help
them right away. So they face a lot of issues going through that. Whenever
they get a job all they think about is to send money, they’re not thinking
about maintaining your apartment here, maintaining a phone line which is a
necessity, is not a luxury. 570
A police liaison officer in Minnesota who has worked extensively with the Liberian community
observed that it is not unusual for a single wage-earner to be supporting ten dependents here in the
United States. 571 One statement giver reported that the stress of working multiple jobs to support
relatives in Liberia has left her little time or resources for her children living with her in the United
States; 572 another statement giver described the impact of remittances to Liberia as forcing her to live
“paycheck to paycheck.” 573
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