While there’s a debate over immigration….

I’ve beeen jamming on a paper I need to finish within the week, which means I haven’t been able to cover the whole immigration debate as thoroughly as Mickey Kaus. [So what’s your position?–ed. I think guest worker programs make little economic or political sense. I’d rather vastly expand the legal flows of immigrants who ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

I've beeen jamming on a paper I need to finish within the week, which means I haven't been able to cover the whole immigration debate as thoroughly as Mickey Kaus. [So what's your position?--ed. I think guest worker programs make little economic or political sense. I'd rather vastly expand the legal flows of immigrants who want U.S. citizenship, while simultaneously investing more in border security schemes -- though I'm pessimistic about the latter working terrbly well.] That said, I can link to this interesting Financial Times story by Richard Lapper on the extent to which Latin America relies on worker remittances as a source of capital inflows: Migrant workers from Latin America and the Caribbean sent home $53.6bn to their families last year, an increase of 17 per cent on 2004. The rise ? documented in a survey to be announced on Thursday by the Inter-American Development Bank ? confirms Latin America?s position as the biggest market in the world for remittances. For the third consecutive year, remittances to the region exceeded the combined flows of direct foreign investment and overseas economic aid.... An estimated 25m-27m Latin Americans are living and working abroad, 22m of them in the developed markets of North America, Eur-ope and Japan. Mr Terry said migrant workers from the region now made up more than 20 per cent of the labour force in Madrid, Spain?s capital. In the US, Latin American and Caribbean workers constitute an average of 12 per cent of the labour force. ?Family by family, worker by worker, migrants are redrawing the map of global labour markets,? Mr Terry said. Improvements in techniques used to monitor the flows of remittances in part accounted for the sharp rise last year. Many migrants continue to use informal channels, and the total could be more than $59bn. Countries nearest the US have seen the biggest flows, with Mexico drawing some $20bn of foreign exchange earnings from remittances. The five countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic received $11bn. Brazil got $6bn, Colombia $4bn and the four other Andean economies a total of $9bn. Here's a link to the actual IADB report.

I’ve beeen jamming on a paper I need to finish within the week, which means I haven’t been able to cover the whole immigration debate as thoroughly as Mickey Kaus. [So what’s your position?–ed. I think guest worker programs make little economic or political sense. I’d rather vastly expand the legal flows of immigrants who want U.S. citizenship, while simultaneously investing more in border security schemes — though I’m pessimistic about the latter working terrbly well.] That said, I can link to this interesting Financial Times story by Richard Lapper on the extent to which Latin America relies on worker remittances as a source of capital inflows:

Migrant workers from Latin America and the Caribbean sent home $53.6bn to their families last year, an increase of 17 per cent on 2004. The rise ? documented in a survey to be announced on Thursday by the Inter-American Development Bank ? confirms Latin America?s position as the biggest market in the world for remittances. For the third consecutive year, remittances to the region exceeded the combined flows of direct foreign investment and overseas economic aid…. An estimated 25m-27m Latin Americans are living and working abroad, 22m of them in the developed markets of North America, Eur-ope and Japan. Mr Terry said migrant workers from the region now made up more than 20 per cent of the labour force in Madrid, Spain?s capital. In the US, Latin American and Caribbean workers constitute an average of 12 per cent of the labour force. ?Family by family, worker by worker, migrants are redrawing the map of global labour markets,? Mr Terry said. Improvements in techniques used to monitor the flows of remittances in part accounted for the sharp rise last year. Many migrants continue to use informal channels, and the total could be more than $59bn. Countries nearest the US have seen the biggest flows, with Mexico drawing some $20bn of foreign exchange earnings from remittances. The five countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic received $11bn. Brazil got $6bn, Colombia $4bn and the four other Andean economies a total of $9bn.

Here’s a link to the actual IADB report.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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