Latin American Economic Outlook 2010
“Among the most interesting surprises by the global economic crisis: so far its impact on Latin America has been less than anticipated. This OECD report offers a clear analysis of the factors that explain this phenomenon.” Moisés Naim, Editor in Chief, Foreign Policy
“This essential study shows that countries open to the international economy with serious fiscal and monetary policies were better prepared to confront this crisis. The reprot also explains, with realistic analysis, why why migration policies belong on the international agenda.” Ricardo Lagos,former President of Chile
“This volume suggests that migration can help the development process provided that some interventions are adopted both in the sender and recipient countries.” Mauricio Cárdenas, Senior Fellow and Director of the Latin America Initiative, Brookings Institution
“Policy makers, academics and others interested in Latin American will find here a serious and relevant contribution to advancing their own work.” Santiago Levy,Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge, Inter-American Development Bank
People and Money Flows
How Many and How Much?
Centre de Développement de l’OCDE
Any discussion of international migration in Latin America must begin by answering two basic questions. First, how many Latin Americans are international migrants? And second, how much money do they send home in the form of remittances? Each of these raises new questions in turn. Where do migrants go, for example, and how have these patterns changed over time? What kinds of households receive remittances and how do they spend them? And, of course, it is not possible to begin to answer these without looking at questions of definition and measurement – even the definition of “migrant” is by no means straightforward. This chapter will address each of these points and provide the quantitative basis for the analysis in this Outlook.