Thursday 29 March 2007

80% of OFW families now middle- and high-income

nquirer
Last updated 03:30am (Mla time) 03/29/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Nearly four in five Philippine families that benefit from money remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now middle- and high-income families, which suggests that more funds may be flowing toward saving and investment than toward consumption, the International Monetary Fund said.

The linkage between OFW remittances and investments in the Philippines remains weak, but that may change in the future, the IMF said in a March 2007 country report.

“In the Philippines, the investment ratio has steadily declined since the Asian crisis, thus it is clear that the increase in remittances has not increased investment thus far,” the report said.

In 1991, it said, nearly 60 percent of families in the Philippines that considered their main income source as coming from abroad came from the bottom two quartiles (referring to four equal groups into which a population can be divided) based on income distribution. [Read more]

Monday 26 March 2007

India Receives World's Largest Remittance Flows

Remittances – money sent home by immigrant workers abroad – are hugely beneficial to many countries across the world.

India is the world’s top receiver of remittances. Flows into the country have grown dramatically in recent years, touching US$ 17.4 billion in 2003, up from some US$2 billion a year in the late 1980s.

Funds repatriated home by workers exemplify the principle of self – help. But, can these flows be used more productively?

Remittances: An Economic Force

Remittances by international migrants to their home countries have grown dramatically in recent years. They are now the largest source of external finance for developing nations after foreign direct investment (FDI), even exceeding FDI in some. In others, they are greater than official development aid. [Read more]

Sunday 25 March 2007

Ayala group to go after bigger share of growing OFW business

By Doris Dumlao
Inquirer
Last updated 11:26pm (Mla time) 03/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- AYALA CORP. seeks to capture more business from the country's growing pool of overseas Filipino workers by linking its flagship businesses in banking, property and telecommunications.

Ayala Corp. vice chair Fernando Zobel de Ayala, at the launching of a new privilege membership card for Filipinos overseas, said the conglomerate would like to do much more for the OFW community, which in 2006 sent about $2.8 billion in remittances through banking unit Bank of the Philippine Islands.

The group has now harnessed its three profitable core businesses--Ayala Land Inc., BPI and Globe Telecoms--to come up with "One Ayala," a pioneering membership perks platform for OFWs. [Read more]

Postalbank deal seen cutting OFW remittance fees


Inquirer
Last updated 02:02am (Mla time) 03/17/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Government-owned Philippine Postal Savings Bank, which is being groomed to become a bank for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), said it signed Friday an agreement with banks in 16 other countries to map out remittance channels and reduce fees and charges on remittance services.

Bank president Rolando Macasaet also said Postalbank hoped raise P1.1 billion to P2.0 billion this year through an offering of subordinated debt that would qualify as “tier 2,” or supplementary, capital.

The tier 2 issuance would fund the bank’s infrastructure-building efforts without diluting shareholding of its parent, he noted.

Postalbank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Philippine Postal Corp. [Read more]

Vietnam to tax securities profit remittance abroad

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Finance and the State Securities Commission (SSC) are considering taxing remittances of profit earned from securities investment deals in Vietnam abroad.

Soạn: HA 1064617 gửi đến 996 để nhận ảnh này

On March 20, the Government Office released a dispatch informing the instruction of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s on measures to manage and develop the stock market.

The Prime Minister has asked the ministry and SSC to build up a policy on taxing securities profit remittances sent abroad.[Read more]

Sri Lanka: Drop Ban on Mothers Emigrating for Work


(New York, March 15, 2007) – The Sri Lankan government’s proposed regulation banning mothers of young children from migrating abroad for work discriminates against women and endangers the welfare of their children, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 7, Sri Lanka’s ministerial cabinet approved a proposal by the Minister for Child Development and Women’s Empowerment that would ban women with children under 5 years of age from emigrating for work. The regulation would also require mothers with children aged 5 or older to obtain approval from a government committee after submitting proof that they can provide appropriate caretakers for their children.

Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to withdraw the regulation, which has not yet been implemented.

“This policy blatantly discriminates against women and threatens the well-being of their children,” said LaShawn Jefferson, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. “It would prevent many mothers from supporting their children by banning them from the only form of work they can find.” [Read more]

Tuesday 20 March 2007

IFAD: Call for proposals: Financing facility for remittances

Background

Remittances help fight rural poverty in some of the poorest parts of the world. While the amounts are often small, remittances put money directly into the hands of millions of poor people. In addition, the impact of remittance services is dramatically enhanced when these are linked to other financial services such as savings, insurance and loans.

Promoting inclusive financial systems and innovative partnerships between rural financial institutions and remittance operators will provide significant benefits in terms of competition and cost reduction, thereby offering more resources to the poor and additional options for millions of families to use their capital profitably. For this purpose, the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) for Rural Sector Development has recently been established.

Building on the experience of the joint programme on rural remittances for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), a collaboration between the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the FFR was created to include new co-financing partners such as the European Commission (EC), the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the Government of Luxembourg, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). To maximize outreach to other regions where remittances play a crucial role in rural economic and social development, this facility will fund a second phase of the LAC programme of the IDB/IFAD programme, and will focus on the EU/LAC corridor and include African, European, Middle Eastern and Asian countries as well.

The FFR will facilitate the rapid approval of proposals and swift disbursement of funds for the implementation of identified activities. The FFR will launch competitive calls for proposals and then select and finance the most innovative projects submitted. [Read more]

Saturday 17 March 2007

Latin America and the Caribbean

March 16, 2007 12:42 AM ET

US migrant workers send home $62.3bn

Migrant workers sent back more than $62.3bn to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean last year, a rise of 14 per cent on 2005.

The figures, to be released this weekend at the annual conference of the Inter-American Development Bank, confirm that remittances have become one of the region's most important sources of foreign exchange. For the fourth successive year they will exceed the combined flows of foreign direct investment and overseas aid into the region.

Mexico (with a total of $23bn), Brazil ($7bn) and Colombia ($4bn) receive most remittances, but the flows are especially beneficial for the poorer and more marginal countries of Central America and the Caribbean, where they account for more than 10 per cent of GDP in many cases.

Don Terry, head of the Multilateral Investment Fund, the IDB agency that monitors the flows, argues that as 8m-10m families "would be below the poverty line" without the remittances.

However, a clampdown by US migration officials on illegal immigrants could be contributing to a sharp slowdown in growth, Mr Terry claimed. [Read more]

Copyright 2007 Financial Times

Also Related News

L America migrant money tops aid
By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Mexico City

US dollar bills
Remittances could reach $100bn in four years' time
The amount of money sent home by Latin American migrant workers to their families has reached more than $62bn.

This figure now exceeds the combined total of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid to Latin America.

According to the Inter-American Investment Bank, the figure could reach $100bn in four years' time. The biggest share of money, $23bn, was sent back to Mexico, mostly from workers living in the United States remitting small sums each month. [Read more]


March 18, 2007

Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean to top $100 billion a year by 2010, IDB fund says

Economic and demographic factors will keep pushing growth of money transfers sent by migrant workers to their homelands

GUATEMALA CITY – Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to grow in coming years and surpass $100 billion a year by 2010, according to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).

MIF Manager Donald F. Terry today presented the estimate for the money transfers made by Latin American and Caribbean migrants at a news conference held here on the eve of the annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors, which will convene here Monday and Tuesday.

“Given present economic and demographic trends in Latin America and the Caribbean and in industrialized countries, remittances will continue to grow in volume over the next few years to more than $100 billion a year by 2010,” he said. [Read more]

Global Forum on Migration and Development






On 9, 10 and 11 July 2007 the Belgian government will host the first meeting of the ‘Global Forum on Migration and Development’. The King Baudouin Foundation has accepted the invitation to organise the first day of the Global Forum, which will be devoted to civil society.

The ‘Civil Society Forum on Migration and Development’ on 9 July will gather a broad range of non-governmental actors to discuss the migration and development nexus and give input to the governmental discussions on the 10th and 11th of July. [read more]


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Migrant organisations which are interested to attend the forum are encouraged to apply for accreditation. Kindly read first how to register here

Sunday 11 March 2007

Latin American Migrant Community Summit



Registration is now Open!

click here to register!
please register early - space is limited
payment for registration can be updated at a later date

About the Summit

The Americas is a hemisphere of migrants. Virtually all countries in the Americas experience some form of migration. As migration has increased dramatically in the past two decades, so have migrant organizations begun to form in many countries. These organizations take many forms, but they share a concern with building healthy communities, both in their adopted countries, and in their places of origin.

Over the past 18 months, a group of migrant leaders from organizations whose members emigrated from the Americas have been meeting to develop a space for information-sharing and joint strategy setting for Latino and Caribbean migrant leaders. The goal of this initiative is to position organized groups of Latin American immigrants as protagonists in the development of healthy communities, both in destination countries and in countries of origin.

[read more in English)

[read more in Spanish]

A website for expat researchers

No more toggling between government websites for up-to-date policy information and contacts, no more virtual travelling to separate destinations for assistance with expat issues; the Dutch version of a European Commission project to improve mobility is up and running. Sarah Steegar reports.

The website, which is part of a European Commission project called ERA-MORE, has been in the making since the birth of the project in 2000. It stands for European Research Area – MObile REsearchers, and just as it sounds, it is a concentrated effort to facilitate mobility in Europe. While its primary focus is on helping those in research professions, the new website, www.eracareers.nl, is full of information useful to any expat. [Read more]

Knowledge Workers


Transferring highly-skilled
workers from the US

Patrick Rovers answers a readers question regarding the use of the knowledge migrant system in the Netherlands and whether this can apply to Indian workers who are currently officially employed by a US company, but who will need to transfer to a Dutch subsidiary to carry out work on an intermittent basis.

"Our company is officially headquartered in Germany. We want to assign five Indian nationals - who are currently employed by our US subsidiary in New York - to our subsidiary in the Netherlands. They will be working in the Netherlands on an intermittent basis. Probably four months in the Netherlands, a couple of weeks in the US and so on. The Indian nationals are legally residing in the US and hold valid US visas.

Perhaps we will make use of that special programme for highly skilled people. Is that possible? The Indian nationals are worried about obtaining Dutch residence permits. That seems to be quite a challenge. Is it really necessary to arrange for Dutch permits? What are the risks we do not apply for the right kind of Dutch paperwork? Any feedback is much appreciated!" [Read more]

Saturday 10 March 2007

Pambazuka News

Pambazuka News (Pambazuka means arise or awaken in Kiswahili) is a tool for progressive social change in Africa. Pambazuka News offers a comprehensive weekly round-up of news on human rights, conflict, health, environment, social welfare, development, the internet, literature and arts in Africa.

Pambazuka News is produced by Fahamu, an organisation that uses information and communication technologies to serve the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change.

The bulk of the research and compilation for the weekly newsletter is done by Fahamu staff in South Africa with support from Fahamu's head office in Oxford, United Kingdom. Further input is made by editorial writers, content partners and volunteers from around the African continent. You can contact Pambazuka News by writing to editor@pambazuka.org. Read more

Seminar on Building Partnerships


March 7, 2007
Belgium

Seminar on Building Partnerships
Download the presentations

Focus
This seminar on Building Partnerships is catering to the ongoing policy discussions on international migration and development, which gained momentum during the General Assembly’s High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (HLD), held at UN Headquarters in September 2006. This dialogue will be continued at the first Global Forum on International Migration and Development to be held in Belgium in July 2007.

The seminar will bring together development and migration experts to share their views and discuss the migration-development nexus in the context of their respective mandates and policy agendas. A look at the historical evolution of this nexus will lead to a discussion on more recent developments. The Seminar will present evidence and experiences regarding the building and functioning of partnerships that bring together the development and migration ‘communities’, including local actors, the private sector, as well as migrants and diaspora organizations.

Objectives
This seminar is intended to:

* increase mutual understanding between migration and development communities;
* look at how migration is taken into account in development cooperation;
* identify good practices in increasing the development impact of migration and, in this context, models of successful partnership between
* different stakeholders;
* discuss the way forward for enhanced international cooperation in this field;
* brief delegates on the state of preparations for the first Global Forum on International Migration and Development to be held in July in
* Belgium, and on the work of the Global Migration Group (GMG).

Read more

Mapping Migrant/Diaspora Development-oriented Organizations – Request for Information

Mapping Migrant/Diaspora Development-oriented Organizations – Request for Information

9 July 2007, the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) will organize an international conference as a prelude to the "Global Forum on Migration & Development". This conference follows on from the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on International Migration & Development that took place in New York in September 2006.

The KBF is particularly keen to ensure that diaspora & migrant organizations that are involved in supporting development in their countries of origin have an opportunity to participate in this conference. The aim is for balanced representation of such organizations from all over the world (ie all continents).

To that end, the KBF has contracted the African Foundation for Development’s (AFFORD’s) research & consulting arm to undertake a quick mapping exercise to identify as many diaspora & migrant organizations with a focus on supporting development in their regions of origin. Read more

Sunday 4 March 2007

AGENDA: Conferences, workshops, meetings, debates


EXPERT MEETING

Diaspora Organisations: Building Strategic Partnerships in Challenging Times
Organiser: Oxfam Novib and African Diaspora Policy Center
Date: March 31-April 1, 2007
Venue: Kontakt der Kontinenten, Amersfoort
Participants: by invitation only (maximum 20 participants)


April 2007

Discussion:

Women : Future of Bangladesh
Organiser: BASUG (Bangladesh Support Group)
Date: April 28,2007
Venue: Mondriaan College, The Hague
For information, please contact: bikash.chowdhurybarua@gmail.com
website: http://www.basug.nl/act_28april2007.html

Objectives:
1) To develop a European agenda on certain specific women issues and fight more effectively to improve the situation of women in Bangladesh;
2) Look at the same problem from different approach. For example, situation of women in Bangladesh and those from Bangladesh living in UK or other European countries is different. We don’t think that much work has been done in this area;
3) If this discussion is the beginning of a Process, then we hope eventually a common position could be set out;
4) Most importantly, what we feel is that, if it so appears, from the discussion or review meeting thereafter, we can pick up one or two specific issues, either for study or campaign, like for example, Fatwa or acid violence or domestic violence. In this regard, we can hear the experts coming from Bangladesh and see which issues they think need to be addressed on priority basis and then work on the basis of that finding;
5) To develop a preparatory seminar to adopt European agenda on particular women issue;
6) Finally, a major conference could be held sometime in future with wider participation from Bangladesh, Europe and US.


JUNE 2007

TRAINING


Financial Literacy
Organiser: Oxfam Novib
Trainers: SEDPI, Philippines www.sedpi.com
Date: June 14-17, 2007
Venue: Kontakt der Kontinenten
Participants: by invitation only (25 maximum number of participants)

Objectives

1) To teach the participants the various aspects of keeping personal finance.
2) To stimulate use of formal banking institutions (banking the unbankables) and to know various financial services (budgeting, savings and time deposit, mortgage, investments, etc) both for their families back home and in the Netherlands.
3) To provide various options as to how they can create wealth using their existing financial resources.
4) To encourage participants to invest on social projects such as microfinance and other viable micro and medium-size enterprises and to assist them on how to assess viable investment prospects.
5) To develop brief financial education material to help migrants understand available financial products and services.
6) To train cadre of migrant leaders who will conduct financial literacy among their constituencies.


September 2007

CONFERENCE

Seminar #3: Diasporas as development actors

Date: 4-5 September 2007

Focus: This two-day conference will gather diaspora organizations and government representatives from around the world to explore and discuss forms of engagement geared towards two issues: i) promoting home country development, and ii) addressing challenges of co-existence and integration in host communities. The first part of the seminar will be dedicated to discussing models of cooperation related to the multiple contributions that diasporas make to development in their countries of origin. In this regard, it will look at how diaspora organizations can support government policies and programmes and foster private sector development through, for example, foreign direct investment. It will also focus on the enabling frameworks that countries of origin and residence need to provide in order to facilitate diaspora engagement as “development actors”.

Diasporas’ important contributions to the countries and communities in which they live tend to be understated and often overshadowed by concerns over security and preserving a cohesive sense of national identity. The second part of the seminar will focus on the integration of diaspora communities in host communities. It will look at good practices with regard to the political, socio-economic, cultural and religious dimensions of supporting multiculturalism and other shades of integration. In view of the recent report and recommendations of the Alliance of Civilizations High Level Group pertaining to migration, this seminar will also discuss implementation efforts, notably concerning the establishment of institutional structures for a regular and ongoing dialogue among government officials, diaspora communities and other civil society actors in host countries at the national, regional and local levels. This seminar will also bring to it the findings of the European Integration Task Force.

Both parts of this final seminar in 2007 will include thematic and regional working group sessions, allowing for the presentation of existing best practices, an exchange of views and experiences, and a discussion of innovative approaches with all stakeholders involved.

Experts: UN DESA, UNDP, World Bank, IOM, IADB, ADB, AFDB, FOCAL, Inter-American Dialogue, George Washington University, diaspora organizations etc.



For information, visit: http://www.un.int/iom/Series.html