Abstract
Recorded remittances to Africa have grown dramatically over the past decade. Yet data limitations still mean relatively little is known about which migrants remit, how much they remit, and how their remitting behavior varies with gender, education, income levels, and duration abroad. This paper constructs the most comprehensive remittance database on immigrants in the OECD currently available, containing microdata on more than 12,000 African immigrants. Using this microdata the authors establish several basic facts about the remitting patterns of Africans, and then explore how key characteristics of policy interest relate to remittance behavior. Africans are found to remit twice as much on average as migrants from other developing countries, and those from poorer African countries are more likely to remit than those from richer African countries. Male migrants remit more than female migrants, particularly among those with a spouse remaining in the home country; more-educated migrants remit more than less educated migrants; and although the amount remitted increases with income earned, the gradient is quite flat over a large range of income. Finally, there is little evidence that the amount remitted decays with time spent abroad, with reductions in the likelihood of remitting offset by increases in the amount remitted conditional on remitting.
Highlights
Recorded remittances to Africa have dramatically increased over the past decade, with remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa increasing five-fold from US$4 billion in 2002 to $20 billion in 2008 (Sander and Maimbo, 2002; Ratha et al, 2009)
70 percent of Sub-Saharan migrants are believed to migrate to other countries in the region (Ratha and Shaw, 2007), remittance flows are believed to be dominated by flows from outside the region
We have found African migrants remit more than migrants from other developing countries, with the average other developing country being richer than the average African country
Summary
Recorded remittances to Africa have dramatically increased over the past decade, with remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa increasing five-fold from US$4 billion in 2002 to $20 billion in 2008 (Sander and Maimbo, 2002; Ratha et al, 2009). While much of this improvement likely reflects improvements in measurement and a shift towards more formal remittance channels, actual flows are still believed to notably exceed this recorded amount. 70 percent of Sub-Saharan migrants are believed to migrate to other countries in the region (Ratha and Shaw, 2007), remittance flows are believed to be dominated by flows from outside the region. Currently there is nothing that can examine in a systematic way which African migrants remit and which don’t, and how much they send, yet alone answer key questions of interest to policymakers such as whether the more educated remit less or whether women remit more
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