My country, Bolivia, received more than 10% of its GDP in such remittances.
On the other hand, Eritrea exacts a 2% income tax on its citizens living abroad; such remittances are at the level of 85.8% of development aid received.
But such remittances made up more than a fifth of the GDP of some countries such as Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova and Tajikistan in 2007.Data compiled by researchers at the World Bank suggest that remittances may have another virtue that is less widely appreciated.
Such remittances have become an important source of income in many developing countries, dwarfing other inflows of capital from overseas such as foreign direct investment and multilateral aid.
Such remittances are important, says Dilip Ratha of the World Bank, but it is not enough to tap the income of migrants abroad.
Such remittances account for Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil and gas exports.
Evidence in respect of farm households that received some remittances, however, showed that such receipt did not significantly raise the affected farm households' gross income above what was obtained by other comparable households without such remittances.
Those respondents who had acquired Irish or another European Union citizenship were also slightly less inclined to remit: 63% (15/24) of such respondents sent remittances.
Agencies should adapt to aid's increasing insignificance: While still being significant to people, aid is less so for economies with the emergence of other means of development such as remittances.
