Remittances to developing nations likely to rise 4-fold in the current fiscal

Remittances are expected to rise nearly four times a year during fiscal 2016-17, on increasing number of migrants in the developed nations every year, according to the Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016, published by the World Bank.

The World Bank recognizes certain facts and reasons that are pushing the mindset towards uneven migration, leading to higher inflow of remittances in to the developing counterparts. Better job opportunities, labor shortages resulting from falling birth rates, internal conflict and war, natural disasters, climate change, and improved access to information through phone and the internet remain some basic goals of shifting from one country to another.

According to the 2016 edition of the World Bank report, more than 3.4 pct of the world’s population or 250 million people make a living outside their homeland. The volume of South–South migration stands at 38 pct of the total migrant stock, larger than South–North migration.

The acceleration of remittance flows is driven by a modest rise in GDP growth in the United States and the Euro Area, an improvement in growth in Russia after the estimated 3.8 pct decline in GDP in 2015, and a stabilization of the US dollar exchange rates of remittance-source countries, the report mentioned.

Mexico-United States is the world’s largest migration corridor, only to be followed by Russia-Ukraine and India-Bangladesh. However, the top migrant-destination country is the United States, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany and the Russian Federation. The number of migrant workers as a share of population is the highest in the smaller nations of Qatar (91 pct), the United Arab Emirates (88 pct) and Kuwait (72 pct).

Further, refugees are the biggest crisis the world is facing today, barring few nations. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the total count of refugees worldwide (excluding Palestinians) was just over 15 million and 86 pct of international refugees are hosted by nearby developing countries. Finally, the migration of unaccompanied children from Central America to the United States continues to be a serious issue, as well. The number of these migrants rose steadily through 2015, before declining in January this year.

Remittances sent home by international migrants from developing countries are estimated to have risen to USD432 billion in 2015, an increase of only 0.4 pct over the last year. However, India was the largest remittance-receiving country, with an estimated USD69 billion in 2015, followed by China (USD64 billion), and the Philippines (USD28 billion).

Further, the depreciation of the euro contributed to the 0.9 pct decline in the dollar value of remittances flows to the Middle East and North Africa and also had an important impact on remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean, and to Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank Factbook reported.