Representative image of US Dollars.
Credit: PTI file photo
India received $83.15 billion in international remittances in 2020, according to the World Migration Report 2022. World Bank’s data indicates that India has topped the list, with China and Mexico occupying the second and third place with $59.51 billion and $42.88 billion respectively.
International remittances are financial or in-kind transfers made by migrants directly to families or communities in their countries of origin.
The available data is without considering unrecorded flows through formal or informal channels. The actual value of global remittances is likely to be larger than available estimates.
According to data, India’s remittances in 2015 were $68.9 billion.
Overall, United States was the top source of remittance in 2020 with $68 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates ($43.2 billion), Saudi Arabia ($34.6 billion), Switzerland ($27.96 billion), and Germany ($22 billion).
The World Migration Report data indicates an massive overall increase in remittances in recent decades, from $126 billion in 2000 to $702 billion in 2020.
Despite projections of a significant drop in overseas remittances as a result of Covid-19, 2020 only saw a small decrease (2.4 per cent) from the global total of 2019.