tailieunhanh - INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL FLOWS AND WORKER REMITTANCES: BEST PRACTICES

According to the United States Census in 2000, over 40 per cent of Latinos earn less than $20,000 a year and over 70 per cent earn less than $35,000 a year. On average, immigrants in the United States send $260 in remittances at least seven times a year, but these amounts vary depending on the country of origin. Among Latin Americans, Brazilians, Costa Ricans and Mexicans, send the most, while Haitians, Nicaraguans and Peruvians send the least. While there is a considerable variation among migrant populations, remittances represent at least 10 per. | INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL FLOWS AND WORKER REMITTANCES BEST PRACTICES Manuel Orozco A. INTRODUCTION The interplay between micro patterns and macro dynamics has created distant proximities Rosenau 2003 . Distant proximities are real-life experiences that both integrate and fragment relationships outside and inside borders. Immigrants are key protagonists of distant proximities through their labour they integrate their home and host countries into the global economy in order to keep their own families together. Nevertheless their lives are also fragmented by the experience of distance and separation from their families and nations. The end result is a transnational lifestyle characterized by both opportunities and hardships that feature this paradox of distance and closeness. This lifestyle has also implications for development. Although development economics has long considered foreign capital and savings as key to increase a country s capital-output ratio Tarp 1999 until recently it had neglected one very important source migration and worker remittances in particular. There is an interlinkage between migration and development. Specifically through remittances migration has brought new opportunities for social and economic change in many areas. Historically four factors of foreign savings were considered foreign direct investment FDI official development assistance ODA foreign trade and the transfer of technology. However in the past three decades significant changes have influenced economic growth and development thought spurring migration flows. The relationship between development and migration and the resulting effects of economic ties between diasporas and home country economies are becoming more relevant for development and social change. In particular the transnational networks that emerge from household to household relationships include immigrant-based donations small and large investments trade tourism and unilateral transfers of worker remittances. For .