PHL 3rd top global recipient of remittances — World Bank

The Philippines remains the third top recipient of remittances in the world, receiving $24 billion by end of 2012, according to a World Bank report. Only India ($70 billion) and China ($66 billion) are getting more in remittances, said the institution. Mexico ties the Philippines in 3rd place, while Nigeria closely follows in fourth with $24 billion. According to the World Bank Migration and Development Brief issued on Wednesday (Manila time), most of the remittances are from Filipinos working in the Middle East. The report also said that remittance flows to developing countries are expected to exceed earlier estimates and reach $406 billion by end of 2012, a 6.5-percent increase from 2011. These are also expected to increase by 8 percent in 2013 and 10 percent in 2014 to reach $534 billion in 2015. The WB also expects remittances sourced from the US, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Russia in particular will grow in the next few years. The estimate for this year, $406 billion, is now more than three times that of official development assistance (ODAs) going to these countries. The Philippines has more than 9 million overseas workers, the bulk of them in Saudi Arabia (1.2 million). There are 750,000 Filipino workers in Europe, mostly in France, Italy and Spain. The report said “harsh rhetoric and policies hostile towards migrants in Europe” could discourage the flow of migrants there in the future. The continuing Eurozone crisis has also affected outward remittance flows and increased unemployment rates for migrants there. Resilience Global remittances have shown “remarkable resilience” since the global financial crisis, registering only a modest fall in 2009, said the report, though remittances to some regions have lessened, particularly Europe, Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The WB also noted that migrant workers adjust easily to economic crises by lessening personal expenses and sending more money to their families back home. Migrant workers also tend to be more adaptable to the vicissitudes of the global financial crisis than native workers, such as responding to “a shrinking construction sector by moving to other services and trade sectors.” “Naturalized citizens have been better able to make this change compared with native-born and foreign-born non-citizens, which includes undocumented migrants,” said the report. The WB attributes the US’ resumed economic growth largely “because migrant employment picked up considerably and faster than employment of native workers since 2009 and has recovered to the pre-crisis level.” The US is the largest recipient of migrants from developing countries and largest sender of remittances. — BM, GMA News