Assigment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Assigment - Essay Example sion for an industry that has spent millions to attract customers in the countrys growing Latino community and among the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. As a business owner, you sell to whoever comes into your store. You sell to whoever buys from you online. Its easy, normally, said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. Just in some cases where specific identification is needed, like in financial services, its more complicated. But getting less so Last month, Bank of America said it had started a pilot program in the Los Angeles area late last year that didnt require a Social Security number to sign up for a credit card. The Charlotte-based bank insists the card isnt specifically designed to attract illegal immigrants, and says that so far, it has not. The bank hasnt decided if it will offer the card elsewhere, but it would likely be popular with a population that generally lacks access to something as common in most American wallets as the dollar bill and a drivers license. Its a no brainer. Its a very large market, said Jim Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The bank is just the latest example of a major corporation recognizing the impact of doing business with Hispanics. ‘In 2005, the nations 6.6 million illegal immigrant families had an average annual income of $29,500 and accounted for nearly $200 billion in purchasing power, a figure thats only expected to grow,’ said Pew Hispanic Center demographer Jeff Passel. They are impacting the economy, Passel said. The unauthorized are explicitly coming for an economic basis. While credit card use among the nations 42 million Hispanics is on the rise, a substantial number of Latino households dont have access to credit, according a survey conducted by the National Council of La Raza, which found that 80 percent of American households use credit