Americas Quarterly - Spring 2009

The

Remittance

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the developing world. Should remittances trail off there will be serious developmental consequences. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco

For most of the last three decades, developing countries around the world have reaped a huge indirect benefit from the expanding global economy simply by exporting labor. According to official figures, migrant workers poured an estimated $283 billion back into their homelands in the form of remittances to relatives in 2008 alone, though the unofficial number is probably closer to $350 billion. That’s more than three times the combined aid provided last year by industrial countries to the developing world. ¹

But the global economic crisis may now seriously jeopardize those windfall earnings.

There is already evidence that undocumented labor flows across borders have begun to slow, particularly to the United States. The Pew Hispanic Center suggests that “inflows of unauthorized immigrants” have fallen from an average of 800,000 a year between 2000 and 2004 to 500,000 annually between 2005 to 2008. These flows continue to be on a downward trend.