Is Possible Receive Money Income To Other Countries

Data on remittances

Fundamental trends

See our thematic page on COVID-xix and migration data for more than data on the bear upon of COVID-19 on remittances.

In April 2020, Ratha et al. projected a reject in remittance flows to low and center-income countries (LMICs) by about xx per cent because of the economic crunch caused past the COVID-19 pandemic which negatively afflicted wages and employment for migrant workers. By Oct 2020, Ratha et al. adjusted their projections to a decline in remittance flows of 7.2 per cent to USD 508 billion. Latest information prove that instead, remittance flows fell by only 1.6 per cent to USD 540 billion, defying projected declines that would have been the sharpest in recent history (Globe Banking company, 2021). According to the World Banking company, the refuse in recorded remittance flows in 2020 was smaller than the one during the 2009 global financial crisis (4.viii%) (ibid.). Remittances flows as well surpassed the sum of Foreign Direct Investments (USD 259 billion) and overseas development assist (USD 179 billion) in 2020 (ibid.).

Among the key drivers for the steady menses of remittances in 2020 were migrants' desire to aid their families by sending money dwelling house and drawing on savings (ibid.). Other factors include a fiscal stimulus that resulted in better-than-expected economic conditions in host countries, a shift in flows from cash to digital and from informal to formal channels, and cyclical movements in oil prices and currency exchange rates. (ibid.).

In 2020, the meridian five recipient countries for remittances inflows in electric current USD were Republic of india (83 billion), China (60 billion), United mexican states (43 billion), the Philippines (35 billion), and Egypt (xxx billion) (ibid.). India has been the largest recipient of remittances since 2008. In terms of remittances as a share of gross domestic product, by contrast, the height five recipients in 2020 were smaller economies: Tonga (38%), Lebanese republic (33%), Kyrgyzstan (29%), Tajikistan (27%) and El Savador (24%) (ibid.).

In 2020, the top 3 source countries for remittance outflows in current USD were the The states (68 billion), the United Arab Emirates (43 billion) and Kingdom of saudi arabia (35 billion) (ibid.).

In terms of remittance inflows per region, flows rose in Latin America and the Caribbean (6.5%), S Asia (5.ii%) and the Eye East and North Africa (2.3%); But remittance flows brutal for East asia and the Pacific (7.9%), Europe and Central Asia (nine.7%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (12.5%) (ibid.). According to the World Bank, the decline in flows to Sub-Saharan Africa was mostly due to a 28 per cent decline in remittance flows to Nigeria1
. Excluding flows to Nigeria, remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 2.iii per cent, demonstrating resilience (ibid.).

In the 4th quarter of 2020, the average costs of sending USD 200 to LMICs remained high at six.58 per cent, well above the target of 3 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goal 10.c.ane (ibid.). Sub-Saharan Africa continued to have the highest boilerplate remittance costs, at nigh 8.2 per cent; Southern asia had the lowest average remittance costs at 4.9 per cent. The average remittance costs for the remaining regions were: Europe and Central Asia (6.iv%); East Asia and Pacific (vi.nine%); Middle East and Northward Africa (6.vi%); and Latin America and the Caribbean area (five.six%) (ibid.).

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Definition

Remittances are usually understood as fiscal or in-kind transfers made by migrants to friends and relatives back in communities of origin. Nonetheless, the statistical definition of international remittances merely partially reflects this mutual understanding.

The International Monetary Fund, the principal provider of international remittances statistics based on Primal Banking company data, defines remittances equally the sum of ii main components in their Residual of Payments Statistics manual:

(1) "Bounty of employees": This refers to income earned by temporary migrant workers in the host country, and the income of workers who are employed by embassies, international organizations and foreign companies (or "the income of border, seasonal, and other curt-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities" (International monetary fund, 2009: 272). It is important to highlight that the unabridged income of temporary migrant workers is included in this definition, although the income may never actually exist transferred (at to the lowest degree non entirely) to the origin country as migrants still take to embrace their own living costs. Furthermore, the salaries of staff employed by foreign employers (such as embassies or transnational companies) also count as remittances, as these civil servants, diplomats, military personnel and others are considered residents of the origin land (IMF, 2009), although most of these employees may actually not be migrants nor transfer this money anywhere else.

(2) "Personal transfers": These are all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by residents (be it migrants or non-migrants) from or to individuals in other countries ("all electric current transfers betwixt resident and non-resident individuals" (IMF, 2009: 273).

Remittances can also be sent within countries and not just across borders. These are called internal remittances. Furthermore, non all remittances are of financial or in-kind nature. Social remittances are divers equally "the ideas, behaviours, identities and social capital that menstruum from receiving- to sending-country communities" (Levitt, 1998: 927). Social remittances include innovative ideas, valuable transnational networks, noesis, political values, policy reforms and new technological skills.

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Data sources

The World Bank provides annual estimates of remittances flows globally (and bilaterally), based on national balance of payment statistics produced by key Banks and compiled past the IMF. (See definitions of the ii master remittances components above that requite examples of what is included and what is non [Plaza and Ratha, 2017: 65-78]). Information cover remittances inflows into and outflows from countries. The latter are less prominent in the migration and development debates but tin exist an indication of significant immigrant populations in a country, particularly if they exceed remittances inflows.

The basis for bilateral remittances estimates are weighted migrant stock data, the weighted income of migrants based on the per capita income in the country of destination, and the weighted income in the origin country of the migrant (Ratha and Shaw, 2007: 43).

The World Bank as well produces estimates of remittances' transaction costs on a quarterly basis. These are "boilerplate transaction costs of sending remittances to a specific land" and are computed equally "the simple average of the full transaction price in percent for sending USD 200, charged by each unmarried remittance service provider (RSP) included in the Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) database to a specific country". Earth Bank researchers derive these estimates through either undertaking actual transactions themselves to obtain prices, or by inquiring on the transfer costs to a number of banks and money transfer operators (Alvarez et al., 2015: 45).

Since 2007, the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of the International Fund for Agricultural Evolution (IFAD) has published data and statistics on remittances through its series of Sending Coin Home reports based on data from Central Banks, the IMF, and the World Bank RPW database, among others. The reports encompass cardinal issues affecting remittances from both a global and regional perspective and provide comparative indicators to measure the importance of remittances amongst regions and subregions. The latest study (2017) includes data and assay of remittances and migration trends for developing countries over the by decade likewise as the potential contributions of remittances to the Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2018, IFAD'southward FFR launched RemitSCOPE, an online tool providing regional, subregional and state-level data and remittance marketplace analyses. Information technology aims to accost the fast-changing market place realities in the remittance manufacture in society to help bring together the goals of remittance families, as clients, and the strategies of the individual-sector service providers. RemitSCOPE provides market profiles for 50 countries or areas in the Asia and the Pacific region but boosted regions of the earth will be included gradually.

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Data strengths & limitations

The Globe Bank estimates are used to provide a large dataset covering most countries around the world. This allows the user to understand trends and the magnitude of transfers, comparing them to other flows such as Official Evolution Assistance (ODA). All the same, theestimates are far from accurate, due to the methodological challengesoutlined below (Alvarez et al., 2015; Globe Depository financial institution, 2016; Plaza and Ratha, 2017).

The residuum of payments category of "compensation of employees", as defined by the Imf, tin can potentially significantlyoverestimate migrant remittances if a land has a large United nations and/or embassy presence, and hosts factories of transnational corporations employing large numbers of workers. These employees are counted equally "non-residents" or migrants in the country, and all their salaries are recorded as remittances. It is thus not possible to ascertain whether the official Imf and World Bank figures are accurate for these countries or considerable overestimates due to embassy, Un and foreign companies' staff salaries being counted as well (Alvarez et al., 2015).

Statistically, migrants who reside in a state for at to the lowest degree 12 months cannot be distinguished from other residents who are not migrants every bit these statistics are based on residence and not migratory condition (Alvarez et al., 2015: 43). In the second component of remittances – "personal transfers" – the Imf considers if a transfer is made beyond borders, regardless of the residency status, nationality or country of birth of a person, as this data is oft not bachelor. The receiver or sender of the coin transfer may thus not only exist a migrant merely also a citizen with links to some other country, for instance. Thus, remittances can be conflated with larger sums of money sent by private investors and diaspora members for business investments, holding purchase and other fiscal transactions. This leads to the likely overestimation of transfers.

When comparing remittances estimates over time, it is of import to annotation that the documented growth in remittances globally in recent years may have actually derived fromchanges in how remittances are measured, rather than actual increases in such financial flows (Ratha, 2003; Earth Banking company, 2006; Clemens and McKenzie, 2014). Most 80 per cent of the increase in recorded remittances during the period 1990—2010 may be accounted for by changes in measurement, and only a 5th may reflect changes due to higher numbers of international migrants and the incomes they are likely to be earning in destination countries. In add-on, both reporting of remittance transactions has been improved and migrants have increasingly used more formal payment methods equally informal channels decreased as function of anti-money laundering measures (Ibid.).

Information technology is also important to keep in mind that IMF and World Bank estimates focus on remittances transferred through official channels, such as banks. Not all small transactions by migrants conducted via money transfer operators (such every bit Western Union), post offices, mobile transfer companies (like M-Pesa in Kenya) are included in all the countries, neither are breezy transfers (such every bit via friends, relatives or send companies returning to the origin community), depending on the sources of data used by different central banks. As these transfers that are non systematically included in balance of payments can be significant in volume, in particular in the context of S-South corridors, theofficial figures are likely to underreport the phenomenon by every bit much equally fifty per cent(Irving et al., 2010; Earth Bank, 2011). Due to the largely unknown scope of informal transfers, some countries, in detail in sub-Saharan Africa, do not report remittances figures to the Imf in their balance of payments. Information on remittances also vary from country to country due to differences in the availability of data, national legislative and policy frameworks, using citizenship instead of residency status in the definition, and for the simplification of processing the data (Irving et al., 2010; World Banking concern, 2011; Plaza and Ratha, 2017).

The extent of the over and underestimates are, yet, unknown and hard to calculate ( IOM, 2018 ). Specific, representative migration and remittances surveys tin provide more detailed, and reliable information at the national or local level (Earth Banking concern, 2011). This as well includes commodity transfers, such equally consumer items, that are not part of the official recordings but that can be meaning, especially in South-Southward contexts (Melde and Schicklinski, 2011).

Bilateral remittance estimates are prone to the limitations of data on migrant stocks described here. The adding is based on the gross national income (GNI) per capita in the origin country of the migrant and thus cannot business relationship for GNI beingness college there as the assumption is that migrants move to countries with higher incomes. The World Depository financial institution further acknowledges problems around not being able to aspect a transfer to a specific state, especially when passed through an international bank (Ratha and Shaw, 2007). It is thus of import to underline that these are calculated estimates anddo not represent accurate figures (Alvarez et al., 2015).

The testing ofremittance channels through fictitious transfers of money past World Banking concern analysts entails significant limitations as well. Merely afew corridors are monitored. Differences in transaction costs based on the amount sent, with the higher amounts likely to toll less to transport, distorts the representativeness of relevant information. Costs may also alter apace, significant the reported transaction costs rapidly become outdated (Alvarez et al., 2015). Nevertheless, estimates of transaction costs can assistance to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing sending costs to iii per cent of the amount remitted.

Farther reading

International Monetary Fund (Imf)
2009	Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Transmission, 6th edition (BPM6), IMF, Washington, D.C.
2009	International Transactions in Remittances: Guide for Compilers and Users, IMF, Washington, D.C.
Alvarez, P.S. et al.
2015	'Remittances: How reliable are the information?', Migration Policy Exercise V(2): 42-46.
Plaza, Southward. and D. Ratha
2017	'Remittances', in Global Migration Group (eds.) Handbook for Improving the Production and Utilise of Migration Data for Evolution. Global Knowledge Partnership for Migration and Development (KNOMAD), World Depository financial institution, Washington, D.C.: 65-78.
Earth Bank
2021	Migration and Development Brief 34. Resilience: COVID-19 Crunch Through a Migration Lens, Oct 2020. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2020a	Migration and Development Cursory 33: COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens, October 2020. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2020b	Migration and Development Brief 32: COVID-nineteen Crisis Through a Migration Lens, Apr 2020. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2019	Migration and Remittances: Contempo Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development Cursory, No. 31, April 2019. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2019	Data release: Remittances to depression- and heart-income countries on rails to reach $551 billion in 2019 and $597 billion by 2021. People on the Motion web log.
2019	Leveraging Economical Migration for Evolution : A Briefing for the World Bank Board (English). Washington, D.C. : World Banking concern Group.
2018a	Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Evolution Brief, No. 30, December 2018. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2018b	Migration and Remittances: Contempo Developments and Outlook. Migration and Evolution Brief, No. 29, Apr 2018. World Bank, Washington, DC.
2016	Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016. World Banking concern, Washington, D.C.
2011	'Information Notes', The Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, Migration and Remittances Unit, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2006	Global Economic Prospects 2006: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration. Washington, DC.
Irving, J., S. Mohapatra and D. Ratha
2010	'Migrant Remittance Flows. Findings from a Global Survey of Key Banks', World Depository financial institution Working Paper No. 194, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Clemens, M. A. and D. McKenzie
2014	Why Don't Remittances Appear to Affect Growth? CGD Working Newspaper 366, Center for Global Development, Washington, DC.
Ratha, D.
2007	"Leveraging Remittances for Development." Policy Cursory, Migration Policy Constitute, Washington, DC.
2003	"Workers Remittances: An Important and Stable Source of External Development Finance." Global Development Finance, Globe Banking concern, Washington DC.
Ratha, D. et al
2011	"Workers Remittances: An Important and Stable Source of External Development Finance." Global Development Finance, Globe Bank, Washington DC
International Fund for Agronomical Development (IFAD)
2017	Sending Money Home: Contributing to the SDGS, one family at a time.
2015	Sending Money Home: European flows and markets.
2013	Sending Money Habitation to Asia: Trends and opportunities in the world's largest remittance marketplace.
Funkhauser, Eastward.
2012	'Using longitudinal data to study migration and remittances', in: Vargas-Silva, C. (ed.) Handbook of Research Methods in Migration. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, U.k. and Northampton, MA, United states of america: 186-206.
Melde, South. and J. Schicklinski
2011	'Remittances in the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries', Groundwork note ACPOBS/2011/BN02.
Levitt, P.
1998	'Social Remittances: Migration Driven Local-Level Forms of Cultural Diffusion', International Migration Review, Vol. 32(4): 926-948.