Dilip Ratha

Remittances remain a key source of funds for developing countries, far exceeding official development assistance and even foreign direct investment. Remittances have proved to be more stable than private debt and portfolio equity flows, and less volatile than official aid flows, and their annual flow can match or surpass foreign exchange reserves in many small countries. Even in large emerging markets, such as India, remittances are equivalent to at least a quarter of total foreign exchange reserves. India, China, Philippines and Mexico are the top recipients of migrant remittances. The Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016 attempts to present numbers and facts behind the stories of international migration and remittances, drawing on authoritative, publicly available data. It provides a snapshot of statistics on immigration, emigration, skilled emigration, and remittance flows for 210 countries and 15 regional and income groups. The Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016 updates the 2011 edition of the Factbook with additional data on bilateral migration and remittances and second generation diasporas, collected from various sources, including national censuses, labor force surveys, populationregisters, and other national sources.

A joint effort led by the African Development Bank and the World Bank, 'Leveraging Migration for Africa' is the first comprehensive publication on harnessing migration, remittances, and other diaspora resources for the development of Africa. It comes at a time when countries in Africa and elsewhere are grappling with difficult choices on how to manage migration. Policy makers can help leverage the contributions of migrants to the development of Africa, reduce remittance costs, improve the efficiency of remittance markets in both origin and destination countries, and address the needs of the origin countries without restricting the emigration of high-skilled professionals. Innovative financing mechanisms such as issuance of diaspora bonds and securitization of future remittance flows can help finance big-ticket projects, such as railways, roads, power plants, and institutions of higher learning that will, step by step, help to transform Africa. This volume contributes to a greater understanding of migration and its potential role in Africa's development.

Migrant remittances provide the most tangible link between migration and development, having significant potential to reduce poverty and spur socioeconomic development. Drawing on the findings from responses to a survey conducted in 2008-09 from 114 central banks worldwide (of which 33 are in Africa), this paper aims to better understand how central banks and other national institutions regulate and collect data and other information on cross-border remittance flows. Findings indicate that, although the vast majority of countries, in both sending and receiving countries, collect data on remittances, and 43 percent of receiving countries estimate informal remittances, there is a need for more frequent and better coordinated data collection, both across national institutions and among different divisions within the same national institution, as well as between countries. Countries must take into account new channels and technologies, such as mobile phone service providers, in monitoring remittance flows, as the survey results indicate that many new market entrants?? transfer activities are unregulated. It will be important for national regulatory authorities to work closely with mobile telecoms network operators to strike the right regulatory balance, to better understand these new channels?? associated risks and fully tap their potential for fostering inexpensive, efficient remittance transfer services. Policy reforms and initiatives are needed to address the high cost of transfers, cited in the survey as the top factor inhibiting migrants from using formal channels. Building further on the recent progress by many countries, particularly in Africa, in rendering exclusivity contracts illegal would help increase competitiveness and reduce transfer costs.

Contains statistical snapshots for 195 countries and 13 regional and income groups. This book features more than 200 tables, each focused on one country, region, or income group, to explore immigration, emigration and skilled emigration, and inward and outward remittance flows.