Author Archive

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. read more

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. read more