I’d love to hear y’alls opinion on “sending money home”.
Manuel had expectations of sending $250-$300 home per month while living in the US, which is a little wild when he can’t even work yet and seemingly hasn’t discussed it with Ashley at all.
On the other hand, he has multiple kids to support, something they don’t seem to show them talking about at all. And $300 in the US is significantly easier to come by than $300 in Ecuador, where the “average living wage” is around $500USD/month.
It tends to come up every season or so, obviously there’s some outrageous people looking to take advantage of others, but on the other hand a couple hundred bucks goes a lot further in some countries than others, and is typically a lot easier to make in some countries than others.
I’m reminded of David and Annie when they met with the builder after TLC killed her mom - the builder clearly saw David as easy pickings and gave them a wildly inflated quote, but also that’s around 5-10% of what that quote would have been in any American city.
What are your opinions on this? I think some people are out there to take advantage of others, but on the other hand if I could pay for my entire spouses family to live reasonably well for a small slice of my monthly take home pay it seems like a no-brainer to do it?
This is very normal if your someone from a different country. My family is from Morocco and even after 30 years my mom still sends money back. It’s kind of like you made it to America so it’s your duty to support with what you can. My cousin just came here too and is expected to send as well. It’s not like a devious thing though it’s just cause in a lot of other places it’s hard to find work and such and the idea of America is very different in other countries then what we know it to be here. Many people in other countries think we’re all rich so.