Immigrants Sending $45 Billion Home
(washingtonpost.com) Immigrant workers are sending more money than ever to their families in Latin America, but two new studies show that only a small portion of the billions of dollars directed there has gone to economic development.
A report released yesterday by the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that immigrants living in the United States will send $45 billion to family members this year, representing a steady increase from about $2 billion in 1980.
That money, known as remittances, is five times as large as official development assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean. Remittances have grown as more migrants, often unemployed in their homelands, have come north in search of work. At the same time, governments and international development groups have busily debated how to leverage remittance flows to create jobs and lasting investments. (more…)
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