{"id":4566,"date":"2018-11-20T11:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T11:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/migrant-workers-send-home-8bn-to-families\/"},"modified":"2018-11-20T11:06:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T11:06:58","slug":"migrant-workers-send-home-8bn-to-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/migrant-workers-send-home-8bn-to-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrant workers send home \u00a38bn to families"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Migrant workers in the English grape harvest: Many send money home to support their families’ education
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Migrant workers in the UK, many in low-paid jobs, are sending \u00a38bn a year to support families in their home countries, says a report from the United Nations’ education agency.<\/p>\n

This is often used to help relations in poorer countries to stay in school.<\/p>\n

But Unesco warns too much of this “hard-earned money” is being taken in transfer charges by finance companies.<\/p>\n

It says that people wiring money should only have to pay 3% in charges – but the global average is 7%.<\/p>\n

The Association of UK Payment Institutions says prices would be lower if regulators allowed more companies to compete in this market.<\/p>\n

The remittances sent home by migrants can be a lifeline for families in poorer countries – sent back by people working in wealthier parts of the world.<\/p>\n

‘Skimming off’<\/h2>\n

Such cash has become an informal and often unseen subsidy for educating families in less affluent countries.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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The UK is in the top 10 countries for overseas workers sending back money – with billions of pounds sent to the three biggest recipients – Nigeria, India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of millions are sent to Poland, China, Kenya, Philippines, Bangladesh and Ghana each year.<\/p>\n

From the US, remittances have been particularly important to countries in Central America and South America.<\/p>\n

But Unesco, in its annual report on education, says too much is being taken in fees by finance firms.<\/p>\n

“Companies should not be allowed to continue skimming off so much of the money that migrants are sending back home,” says Manos Antoninis, director of the Global Education Monitoring report.<\/p>\n

“Such transaction costs are highest for the poorest migrants.”<\/p>\n

Getting fees down to 3% across the world would save migrant families $25bn (\u00a320bn) per year – which the UN’s education estimates would lead to an extra $1bn being spent on education.<\/p>\n

Boosting education spending<\/h2>\n

Although the average commission is 7% – the UN says many charges can be much higher, with some costs for sending money to Africa rising about 20%.<\/p>\n

Unesco’s report shows the dependency on remittances and the positive impact of the extra cash.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Families sending money home to Kenya help to put children through school
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In 18 countries across Africa and Asia, remittances increased education spending by 35% – and in Latin America by over 50%.<\/p>\n

In India, rural families receiving remittances spent 17% more on education than neighbours who did not have such cash being sent back by relations.<\/p>\n

In the Philippines, this extra income from overseas was seen as a way of reducing child labour, allowing children to remain in education.<\/p>\n

Keeping children in school<\/h2>\n

In Ecuador, money from remittances has become important to keeping girls enrolled in school.<\/p>\n

There has been growing recognition of the scale of remittances in a globalised economy.<\/p>\n

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As well as migrant workers in low-paid jobs, there are also well-qualified, professional workers who go to wealthy countries and then send money home to help with others in their family wanting to study.<\/p>\n

The \u00a38bn sent back from migrant workers in the UK compares with about \u00a313bn, which a House of Commons library report said was the UK government’s total overseas aid.<\/p>\n

According to the Pew research group in the US, more than \u00a3500bn per year is sent worldwide in remittances.<\/p>\n

Such payments are a “vital resource in the countries where migrants have come from,” says Unesco’s Mr Antoninis. <\/p>\n

“These migrants have left everything, often following a dream. They then send their hard-earned money back home to support those they left behind, only to find they are charged extortionate fees for the service.”<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Association of UK Payment Institutions says fees might appear “unnecessarily high” – but it reflected the high levels of regulation and restrictions in a market which mostly handled cash, rather than electronic transfers.<\/p>\n

He also said that even if some firms appeared to have low charges, there could be other costs added through the exchange rate.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Western Union said they believed that about 30% of transfers were intended for education.<\/p>\n

She said that her firm’s overall average fee for moving money was between 4% and 6% – and that reflected the cost of a service that could immediately transfer cash around the globe.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright PA Image caption Migrant workers in the English grape harvest: Many send money home to support their families’ education Migrant workers in the UK, many in low-paid jobs, are sending \u00a38bn a year to support families in their home countries, says a report from the United Nations’ education agency. This is often used … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}