The amount of money that Hispanics living in the United States send to relatives in Latin America and the Caribbean could top $30 billion this year and may encourage more Hispanics, especially Mexicans, to immigrate to this country to lift their families from poverty, a survey released Monday shows.

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So much money flows south across the border that it likely will surpass the total amount of direct foreign investment this year in Latin America and the Caribbean.

''This is a river of gold coming from the United States that could dramatically help improve the economic development of this region,'' said Sergio Bendixen, a Florida pollster who helped conduct the survey.