Abstract
People’s movement is at the forefront of current policy debates across several main migrant destinations. This includes traditional destinations such as North America and Europe but also emerging ones such as the Gulf region. This chapter summarizes the state of migration and remittance flows in the Gulf region. Specifically, we discuss the time series characteristics of remittance outflows from the GCC countries. Further, this chapter uses new data on remittance transfer costs to shed light on the different mechanisms of remitting focusing on money transfers to South Asian countries. Finally, the chapter discusses current policy debates related to remittance flows with practical suggestions.
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Notes
- 1.
Most jobs were available in the construction sector which was mainly covered by workers from India and Pakistan . South Asian workers are also more likely to take on certain jobs with less than ideal working conditions. See Naufal (2015) for more details.
- 2.
To cite an example, see Khadria (2008) which details the economic and social consequences of migration to the Gulf on the State of Kerala in India.
- 3.
This classification is done in accordance to the World Bank , which defines the high-income economies as countries/regions with a GNI (GNP) per capita of $12,476 or more in the 2017 fiscal year. (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519).
- 4.
- 5.
The sending countries in our sample are Kuwait , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , and the UAE. The recipient countries are Bangladesh , India , Nepal , Pakistan , and Sri Lanka . The specific column we use is “cc1 total cost%.”
- 6.
A tiny portion of all transfers is listed as “door to door,” which we think also points to a variation of the hawala system.
- 7.
There are missing data in some quarters in the early portions of the data which we chose not to extrapolate. This leads to disjoint lines in this segment of data in the graph.
- 8.
- 9.
This economy has its currency pegged to a foreign currency. Thus, it must follow the policy changes in that foreign currency. Because most policy changes are in the form of interest rates, especially in the US to which GCC countries have pegged their currencies, we study the impact of interest rate changes abroad on the remittance sending small open economy such as the GCC. Although we discuss interest rate declines, an opposite movement in interest rates is readily inferable.
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Genc, I.H., Naufal, G. (2018). Outward Remittances from the Gulf. In: Chowdhury, M., Irudaya Rajan, S. (eds) South Asian Migration in the Gulf. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71821-7_8
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