India Leads Global Inbound Remittances

Remittances have overtaken foreign direct investment in low- and middle-earning countries for the first time, according to World Bank data published in the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) 2024 World Migration Report on Tuesday. International remittances are defined as money sent from workers living abroad to their home countries.

International remittances have risen by 650 percent from $128 billion in 2000 to $831 billion in 2022. As with previous years, much of this ($647 billion) was received by low- and middle-income countries. Remittance has also greatly surpassed Official Development Assistance, i.e. government aid designed to "promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries” since the mid-1990s.

India received by far the highest international remittances of any country worldwide and is also the first country ever to have passed the $100 billion mark. It was trailed some way behind by Mexico, which had toppled China from the second position in 2021. According to the report, the majority of the inflows for France and Germany, which appear in rank 5 and 10, respectively, are not household transfers but “relate to salaries of cross-border workers who work in Switzerland while residing in France or Germany.” 

In terms of the top sources of international remittances, the United States ($79.15 billion in 2022), Saudi Arabia ($39.35 billion), Switzerland ($31.91 billion), Germany ($25.60 billion) and China ($18.26 billion) are the biggest senders. The UAE’s data was not published this year by the World Bank but would usually also appear in the top 10 list. 

The writers of the report highlight that the World Bank’s global data on international remittances does not take into account unrecorded flows through formal or informal channels. This means the data provided is likely below the actual figures.