Migrants and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Remittances

Migrants and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Remittances Manuel Orozco, Inter-American Dialogue March 18, 2020 This analysis offers a glimpse of the potential impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on US immigrants and family remittances. [...] Among those unemployed, the percent of people that continued remitting in the first six months of losing their jobs dropped to 25% from 40%.9 The effects of the recession resulting from the pandemic will deal a blow to employment as well as remittance sending. [...] The Economic Consequences of the Pandemic on Remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean The drop in remittances to the region will hit many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean at a time when economic growth was already weak. [...] In the case of Haiti, which in 2019 the country experience -0.7 GDP decline, the increase in the amount remitted, which stood at $150 million, prevented the economy from further declining. [...] In 2020, with a radical drop in remittances of $75 million and no growth in other sectors of the economy, the country may have a minimum an additional -2% decline, bringing the country even further down.