Top recipient countries of remittances: India, Mexico, China, Philippines, Egypt

MONEY FROM TEMPORARY MIGRANT WORKERS | Remittances are income earned by temporary migrant workers in the host country as well as personal transfers. In general, they are usually understood as financial or in-kind transfers made by migrants to friends and relatives back in communities of origin. in 2022, the projected 4.2 per cent increase in global remittances, estimated to reach $630 billion) follows a 8.6 per cent growth registered during 2021, when remittance flows reached $605 billion, exceeding earlier estimates, said the World Bank.

RESILIENT | Despite projections to the contrary, remittances proved resilient, even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2016, remittances have been the largest source of external finance flows to low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) other than China

INDIA, $89 billion: India has once emerged as the largest remittance receiving country in 2021 while Mexico pushed China to the thirds slot, according to the World Bank. India received remittances worth over $89 billion in 2021 which was a healthy 8 per cent higher than the $82.73 billion in 2020, according to a World Bank report.

MEXICO, $54 billion: Mexico has pushed China to the third slot in 2021 for global remittances. In 2021, remittances to Mexico grew 27.1% to 51.6 billion dollars, marking a historic high. Mexico’s remittances have soared in the past two years. That surpasses almost all other sources of Mexico's foreign income.

CHINA, $53 billion: China has been the second-biggest recipient of global remittances for over a decade, just behind India. Remittances, however, dropped to 11% to $53 billion in 2021 from $59.5 billion in 2022.

PHILIPPINES, $37 billion: The Philippines has been one of the top five recipient countries for remittances in the last decade. In 2021 the Philippines stood at the No. 4, behind India, Mexico, China.

EGYPT, $32 billion: Egypt rounded up the Top 5 of the world’s remittance recipient countries, according to the World Bank. Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS, 2016 data) stated that there are 9.47 million Egyptian expatriates, where 6.23 million Egyptians live in the Arab world, 1.58 million in the Americas, 1.24 million in Europe, 340,000 in Australia and 46,000 in Africa (mostly in South Africa). A general view shows a crowd and shops at Al Ataba, a market in central Cairo, Egypt in this file photo taken on February 10, 2020.

TOP RECIPIENT COUNTRIES, SOURCE COUNTRIES: Based on available data, the top five source countries for remittance outflows in current USD in 2021 were the United States (74.6 billion), ), Saudi Arabia (40.7 billion), China (22.9 billion), the Russian Federation (16.8 billion) and Luxembourg (15.6 billion)

SOCIAL NATURE: Remittances, usually understood as the money or goods that migrants send back to families and friends in origin countries, are often the most direct and well-known link between migration and development. Remittances exceed official development aid but are private funds.