Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Framing remittances

There is a new IADB report on remittances to Latin America, reporting that they are up to $66.5 billion, a 7% increase from last year, which is a lower percentage increase than in recent years. Remittances to Brazil actually dropped, and the authors cite a stronger Brazilian economy and currency. However, in Honduras remittances constitute a staggering 25% of GNP (Haiti and Guyana are even higher) and remittances to Central America increased 11% overall.

What I found most curious, though, was the way in which the media chose to frame it. The absolute amount continues to rise, so it is increasingly difficult to keep up the massive percentage increases year to year, regardless of immigration policy or other factors.

So the Miami Herald headline is: “Migrants’ Money Flow Home Slackens”

But the Arizona Republic has: “Migrants Still Sending Vast Sums Back to Latin America”

3 comments:

Paul 10:46 AM  

Greg, sorry off topic but this made me laugh: http://ibdeditorial.com/cartoons.aspx

Bosque 8:10 PM  

Maybe the money flow (in places where it has lowered) has something to do with higher taxes in the US to make up for economic losses.

Greg Weeks 6:43 AM  

But if it is due to higher taxes (I assume you mean at the local level?) in the U.S., then we would expect it to decrease evenly across Latin America, yet it isn't.

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