The World Bank released a new report today, Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008. Attending the book launch today two interesting facts emerged. The first is that Mexico is among the largest, but notably not the largest, recipient of remittances. That honor falls to India which the World Bank estimated received $27 billion in remittances in 2007. At $25 billion in returns from abroad, Mexico also falls behind China ($25.7 billion) and just ahead of the Phillipines ($17 billion). In total, the Bank counts a total of $240 billion in remittances flowing to developed countries. This is more than double the $104.4 billion in official development assistance flowing from OECD countries.
The second interesting fact has to do with the size and scale of migration. While debates in the United States tend to consider only the issue of south-north migration (and specifically migration from Mexico and Central American countries to the United States), it is clear that this is only one aspect of migration flows. There is also a lot of south-south migration. As Uri Dadush noted, in Sub-Saharan Africa 70 percent of migration is between SSA countries. This kind of migration was highlighted recently by NY Times reporter Jason DeParle (who also was a panelist at the book launch) in an article entitled A Global Trek from Poor Nations to Poorer Ones.
As Dadush noted at the beginning of the session, the work of Dilip Ratha, helped the Bank to recognize the importance of remittances, and the World Bank is beginning to think more systematically about migration and its role in development. Much more remains to be done in this area. For example, how are remittance dollars used (for personal consumption versus the acquisition of productive assets for example). What is the impact of remittances on health, nutrition, education, poverty alleviation, etc. Then there are broader questions about migration that are worth examining as well. How does migration impact sending communities for example?
Ratha is the lead author of the report. He is also an Indian migrant and contributor of remittances back home. He was featured in this recent NY Times piece.
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