yesterday i found “people move,” a blog about migration and remittances.
pulling out data on the philippines, and comparing these against world, east asia and pacific and south asia aggregations, i came to five very engaging (and for me, quite compelling) conclusions:
Selected Variables on Annual Remittances:
By Selected Countries and Regions
|
World Annual Remittances (Year 2008 ) |
% to GDP (Year 2007) |
No. of Emmig. (Year 2005) |
Per Head Remit (US$) |
||
|
Group |
Country |
Amoun (US$B) |
|||
|
World: ———- US$ 10B Above
|
1-India |
30B |
2.4% |
9.9m |
3.0K |
|
2-China |
27B |
0.8% |
7.2m |
3.7K |
|
|
3-Mexico |
24B |
2.8% |
11.5m |
2.0K |
|
|
4-Philippines |
18.6B |
11.6% |
3.6m |
5.1K |
|
|
5-France |
13.7B |
0.5% |
6.4m |
2.1K |
|
|
6-Poland |
11B |
2.6% |
2.3m |
4.7K |
|
|
7-Spain |
10.9B |
0.7% |
4.7m |
2.2K |
|
|
Sub-Tot |
135B |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
5–9.9B |
14 Countries |
105B |
6.2% |
- |
- |
|
Below 5B |
143 Countries |
135B |
4.8% |
- |
- |
|
Grp Tot |
164 Countries |
375B |
- |
- |
- |
|
East Asia and Pacific |
Indonesia |
6.5B |
1.5% |
1.7m |
3.7K |
|
Vietnam |
5.5B |
7.9% |
2.2m |
2.4K |
|
|
Thailand |
1.8B |
0.7% |
0.7m |
2.3K |
|
|
Malaysia |
1.8B |
1.0% |
1.4m |
1.2K |
|
|
South Asia |
Bangladesh |
8.8B |
9.5% |
4.8m |
1.8K |
|
Pakistan |
7.0B |
4.2% |
3.4m |
2.0K |
|
|
Sri Lanka |
2.7B |
8.1% |
0.9m |
2.9K |
|
|
Nepal |
2.2B |
15.5% |
0.7m |
2.9K |
|
Source: World Bank on Migration and Remittances, 2008
.
1. among countries with remittances that are higher than 10% of their
gdp, it’s the philippines (at us$18.6billion) that has the
overwhelmingly highest absolute amount of remittances, being more than
3 times lebanon’s (at us$6billion), its nearest rival. while
tajikistan may have the highest remittances-to-gdp ratio (at 45.5%)
its actual remittances of us$1.7b is just 10% of that of the
philippines’ and its number of immigrant workers is just over 20% of
those from the philippines.
2. again among countries with remittances that are higher than 10% of
their gdp, the typical filipino migrant is among those who send the
most back home to support dependents, with a per capita remittance of
just over us$5,000K per annum. lebanon, honduras, guatemala and
jordan may have higher per capita remittances but the philippines
still is about 10% higher than their total combined remittances (only
us$16.7b) and approximately 44% more than their total combined number
of emigrants (only 2.3million).
3. in the whole of east asia and the pacific, it’s the philippines
that has the highest remittance-to-gdp ratio (at 11.6%) and the most
number of emigrants (at 3.6million).
4. in south asia, nepal may beat us with its 15.5% remittance-to-gdp
ratio, but their remittances (us$2.2b) amount to just a little more
than 10% of ours and we have 4 more emigrants for every 1 from nepal
(.7m).
5. only 3 countries in the world beat the philippines when it comes
to absolute amount of remittances and number of emigrants — india
(us$30billion, 9.9million emigrants), china (us$27b, 7.2m), mexico
(us$24b, 11.5m) but per capita wise, the filipino emigrant still
remits roughly 2 dollars (38%) more than do the indian, chinese and
mexican emigrants.
reflecting on these 5 trends i find myself asking:
1. what are the reasons why filipino emigrants send much more money
back home compared to most other emigrants around the world?
could it higher-paying jobs, or frugal living, or both that propels
higher remittances? or is it cultural propensity or sense of
responsibility, or family values?
understanding why could help us promote policies and programs that
would encourage higher remittances. with global remittances now
valued at approximately us$375billion a year, just a 10% increase in
remittances through effective marketing initiatives would be worth a
staggering us$37billion, suprassing even the us$30billion remittances
of india, the highest in the world.
2. what are the financial mechanisms that enable these filipino
remittances to arrive in the Philippines safely?
is it a lack of similar financial mechanism that is preventing more
remittances from emigrants of other nationalities?
will it help if we institutionalize a regional, asia-wide financial
mechanism specifically targetted at remittances to lower the overall
transaction cost of sending money back home?
in summary, i always knew that the philippines had a lot of overseas
workers, but this is my first time to ever see hard numbers. at the
very least, the philippines makes quite a unique case in the study of
migration and remittances given these 5 trends above.
