Migration and Remittances - A Case Study of the Philippines

Abstract: Capital movement in the world has great impact on economies. Remittances to developing countries are today seen as an important channel for economic growth in less developed countries (LDCs). The purpose of this thesis is to examine migration and remittances to and from the Philippines. Questions of particular interest are whether there are any patterns in migration or remittances in the Philippines and whether these possible trends can be explained by theory. Firstly, migration’s and remittances’ theory are presented to give an understanding of migration and remittances in general. The latter part discusses migration and remittances to the Philippines.This thesis is an empirical study of migration and remittances. The thesis is based on a review of the literature on migration and remittances. It also compares statistics about migration from and remittances to the Philippines. In this thesis it is found that, during 20th century, a large permanent migration from the Philippines to mostly highly developed countries and a large temporary migration to mostly nearby Asia and Middle East been recorded. Most remittances comes from the USA for two reasons; the high number of Filipinos living in USA and because some remittances from other countries are recorded through U.S. Banks. Countries with a large share of temporary migration from the Philippines, such as Saudi Arabia, have increased their share of remittances sent to the Philippines and with that increased their importance as a partner country in business. The receivers of remittances usually have it as their main household income and the money is usually spent on basic expenditures for the household.