Estimated $18 Billion/ Year Flows into US Via Remittances

Though immigrants often send money to family in other countries, that trend is a two-way street: US residents also boost the economy with financial help sent from family abroad.


That’s according to data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau, which for the first time asked residents of more than 50,000 households about the remittances they have sent and received over the past two years.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization Inter-American Dialogue, believes these are very conservative estimates, since according to its own calculations, which take into account a web of migration networks, the amount of money sent to the United States each year in remittances reaches $18 billion.

In any case, there is no doubt that the world’s largest economy not only sends money to other countries in the form of immigrants helping out their families, but U.S. residents also receive help from their loved ones abroad. Read more