The IDB also found that approximately $143 million was remitted to Guyana while Trinidad & Tobago received $93 million and Suriname, $51 million. Other Caribbean countries were not included in the survey. This represented an increase in the cases of T&T and Guyana, of $5 and $6 million, respectively, when compared to 2003.

About three-quarters of the total volume of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean came from the United States. Europe was the second largest source, while Japan continued to be a major origin of flows to Brazil and Peru, as Canada was in the cases of Jamaica and Haiti.

Mexico remained the top destination, receiving about $16.6 billion last year. Brazil was second with $5.6 billion, followed by Colombia with $3.9 billion.

Meanwhile, in 2004, as in the previous two years, remittances exceeded the combined totals of overseas aid and foreign direct investment received by the region, IDB officials said.

According to the MIF’s research, there are some 25 million Latin American and Caribbean-born adults living abroad. About two-thirds of them send money to their families on a regular basis. On a global scale, some 175 million people have left their homelands for economic reasons.

While remittances reflect the growing integration of labor markets, MIF Manager Donald F. Terry noted that this phenomenon is still based on a fundamentally human factor: migrants’ commitment to their families. “These are transnational families, living and contributing in two countries, two economies and two cultures at the same time,” he said. “The world has adapted to shifts in trade and investments, adopting new political and economic rules to match new realities. The same needs to be done for migrant workers who have become a vital part of the world’s labor markets.”