Thirty Eight Percent of Dominican Households Receive Remittances

This figure appeared in a survey done in the Dominican Republic in August 2008 by Manuel Orozco, of Inter-American Dialogue, who recently spoke at a FUNGLODE Conference

“The economic situation in the world has created a number of question marks about its impact on immigration and sending of money as well as fears about the future of exports and foreign investment,” said Orozco.

Thirty eight percent of Dominican households receive remittances that amount to over $3 billion US dollars. The majority of the recipients informally save an average of $1,400 dollars. Both of these pieces of data form part of a study presented by Manuel Orozco, Director of the Program for Remittances and Development of the Inter-American Dialogue, during the conference titled “The Tendencies of Family Remittances and the Significance for the Dominican Republic in the Face of Changes in the World Economy,” held on Friday in the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) auditorium.

In his dissertation, Orozco spoke about aspects related to the impact the global recession could have on the sending of money in 2009, “The economic situation in the world has created a number of question marks about its impact on immigration and sending of money as well as fears about the future of exports and foreign investment,” said Orozco.

“The anti-cyclical nature the remittances have historically exhibited, the migratory behavior in times of recession, and the co-dependence that exists today between immigration and globalization will define in 2009 a moderate fall of not more than 3% or a growth of 2%. This inclination will depend on the speed of the economic recovery, the strategies for mitigating the drop in receptor countries and the behavior within the homes in developing countries and their migrants outside the country,” he said.

The specialist also explained that the competitive tendency in the business of money transfers shows a change in the demand toward innovative products that depend on financial transfer methods.

The presentation was based on a statistic study done by Orozco with a base in surveys done in homes in various Latin American and Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic. Others, done in the United States, looked at employment, immigration and remittances and included analyses of primary data and interviews with immigrants in the United States and Spain.

As a member of the Inter-American Dialogue team, in Washington DC, Orozco also coordinates a program from the Central American area. He has conducted extensive research, political analysis and has supported issues related to the global movement of remittances, immigration and global development.

Orozco is the Director of Central American and the Caribbean Area at the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department. He is a professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC where he is a researcher for the Institute for the Study of International Migration. He frequently testifies before the US Congress and has made presentations at the United Nations.