Payback
Jeton Qallaku, a Bronx resident, sends about three percent of his $60,000 salary back to his parents and sister in Kosovo each year. Qallaku's family mostly uses these remittance payments to keep up with their water, sewage, and electricity bills.
Jeton immigrated to New York from Kosovo in 1996, and has been sending money home ever since. Kosovo is one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world. In 2008, remittances from Kosovar Albanian migrants accounted for 13 percent of the country's economy, according to World Bank figures. In that same year, global remittances totaled $308 million, a record high. But in the past year and a half, remittances have taken a hit as the world reels from the economic crisis.
Jounalism students at Columbia University teamed up with GlobalPost.com to profile New York area migrants to learn how the economic crisis is affecting their capacity to send money home. The students captured stories from migrants while traveling along New York's #2 subway line, which connects Brooklyn to the Bronx. Jeton's story is one of many included in this project, entitled "Payback: Remittances in New York City," but the project also features stories of migrants from Ghana, Haiti, Kosovo Albania, Mexico, Yemen, Pakistan and China. These very personal stories are told through video content and interactive maps.
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