These remittances amount to nearly $25bn each year, roughly 2% of the Mexican gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
In 2007 remittances amounted to 46% of GDP in Tajikistan, 34% in Moldova, and 28% in Lesotho.
In 2008 their remittances amounted to 17% of national income, one of the world's higher rates.
But whereas remittances amounted to only 3.9% of India's GDP, they were over a fifth of Lebanon's.
In Albania, receipts from remittances amount to 75% of its exports of goods and services (with the unwelcome result that its currency is one of Europe's strongest).
Remittances amount to more than a fifth of GDP, but bringing talented Haitians back home would help even more than their cash.
Such remittances amounted to a colossal US$19.6bn in April-December 2006, a 15% year-on-year increase.Export risksBuoyant export growth has also built up India's foreign-exchange holdings.
The money sent in the other direction in the form of remittances amounted to about $23 billion in 2006, according to the Bank of Mexico, the country's central bank, up almost sevenfold in a dozen years.
Some Latin American countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are highly dependent on them – remittances amount to more than 15%% of their GDP – whereas Argentina or Brazil receive remittances that do not reach 1%% of their GDP (Maldonado & Hayem, 2013).
In Nepal, for example, the World Bank reports that remittances amounted to $5.6 billion (US dollars) in 2013, or about 29% of GDP, while official development assistance and aid totaled approximately $870.6 million (World Bank 2015).
