UNITED NATIONS (AP) Money that migrant workers send to their families and homeland is far more valuable to developing countries than foreign aid and is expected to grow 6.3 percent this year, a new World Bank study said Wednesday.
Migrants are expected to send $414 billion in remittances home this year to developing countries, the study said, and the figure will likely surpass $500 billion by 2016.
That makes remittance funds almost four times more important to developing nations than official foreign aid from governments, which the United Nations says amounts to about $126 billion a year.
The current global total of remittances to all nations is $549 billion.
India gets $71 billion in remittances, the biggest benefactor from such funds. China got $60 billion, the Philippines $26 billion, Mexico $22 billion, Nigeria $21 billion and Egypt $20 billion.