According to recent surveys, every Latin American immigrant in the United States sends between $100 and $300 back home each month. This report highlights the remittance practices of Latin America and their role as a foreign currency source across the region.
In Tajikistan most rural inhabitants don’t have access to drinking water near their homes. This innovative project, initiated by UNDP and the European Commission’s ‘ECHO’ Programme, encourages Tajik migrant workers to earmark some of the money they earn abroad for the installation of drinking water facilities for their families back home.
Funds sent by overseas workers back to Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to drop steeply in 2009, shrinking a crucial source of cash for many families in the region. Remittances to the region began to slow in 2008 after a decade of growth, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, as countries such as the U.S., Spain and Japan, slid into recession.
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Last year, the official amount of remittances in the Phillipines reached US$14.4 billion, more than 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. Thus, the country is now the world’s third highest remittance-recipient country after India and Mexico. But how much do the Philippines pay for the remittances? How do natives see this?
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This blog is hosted by Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank. The articles, written primarily by World Bank staff, are devoted to the movement of people, and how migration and the money (remittances) that migrants send home can be leveraged for development.
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According to the 2007 edition of the Economic and Social Survey (Jamaica), remittances – the leading source of foreign currency inflows to the country – positively influence welfare and poverty reduction. At the same time, they have negatively impacted the family unit and the working-age population.
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Financial remittances from Somalis living outside the country are an outstanding feature of the Somali economy, and have long been crucial to the economy. Today, the new diaspora in the West has assumed a very important role as a source of remittances to family members in Somalia or in refugee camps.
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In past years Moldova has become too dependent on the money people from abroad send to the country, experts say. “It’s like living on drugs and it’s called remittances,” says economist Ionita Veaceslav, who works for a social economic think thank IDIS Viitorul in Chisinau. He expects Moldova to be in troubled water within a few months.
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The Migration and Remittances Working Group of the World Bank offers monitoring and forecast and timely analysis on topics such as remittances, migration, and diaspora issues for all countries, regions and income groups.
Gregory Watson, Team Leader of Climate Change at Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), presents ways of linking remittances and sustainability.
Dilip Ratha, Manager with the Migration and Remittances Unit of the World Bank, presents the newest evidence on the development impact of remittances in the post-crisis time.
The remittances that Mexican emigrants send home to their families from a recession-bound US has dropped by 14 per cent over the last year. Adam Thomson visited the small town of Sengio in the southern state of Michoacan to see how families and local businesses are being affected by the drop off in funds.
As remittance volumes have steadily increased over time, they have become an important revenue source for many households in developing countries. This report highlights the major advantages, risks and future trends of remittances.
