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Direct impact of the increasing migration movements worldwide: Money transfers from migrants to their country of origin are reaching record levels. The World Bank has just published its latest figures
Published on December 20, 2023 09:23
Reading time: 2 minutes
The World Bank headquarters in Washington (USA). (ERIC BARADAT / AFP)
This is the money an immigrant worker earns in a host country that offers them work. Money that this employee sends partly back to his country of origin, usually to his family. The total amount of transfers recorded this year is 670 billion dollars (610 billion euros). An increase of almost 4% compared to 2021/2022. The World Bank predicts an identical increase next year.
It has become a real economic phenomenon and we cannot talk about monetary “leaks” from one region to another, contrary to what some critics would have us believe. These transferred billions contribute in their own way to the development of disaster areas.
The United States, Saudi Arabia and China are the leading trio of monetary “shift”
These remittances from migrants to their country of origin remain one of the most important external sources of financing for poor countries. The World Bank notes that the amounts displaced in this way far exceed the amounts of official development assistance. They are even more important than foreign direct investments by international companies in poor countries ($250 billion more than direct investments).
While we are in the middle of a debate about the migration phenomenon, Europe, contrary to popular belief, is not the champion of monetary “shift”. The United States ranks first due to its significant immigrant culture. Saudi Arabia is a close second due to the large and growing number of foreign workers settling there to bolster the local workforce. They are mainly Pakistani, Indian and Asian. Europe is in fourth place behind China. As for the war in Ukraine, it upset the rankings by pushing Russia down. For example, there are fewer flows from Russia to Azerbaijan or Georgia. We see that these cash transfers are now making migrant workers increasingly important players in global geopolitics.
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