How much do you send home?

How much do you send home?

New report on migration sees the number of migrants in the Gulf up by a fifth, and puts it down to financial stability. But how much are you sending home?

December 16, 2010 4:28 by Samuel Potter

The latest report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) indicates that the number of migrants living in the GCC has risen by 20 percent in the last five years alone. That brings the total number of migrants in the Gulf up to 15.1 million. According to the National, the IOM puts the growth down to the fact that the Gulf countries offer “relative financial stability.”

But the IOM report apparently suggests that the number of temporary migrants in the region could be reaching a plateau and that remittances from the Gulf may have started to decline. According to the paper, after years of increasing remittances from Bahrain, Saudi, and Kuwait, for instance, all three countries’ remittances stopped growing at the end of 2008. Remittances to certain countries, including Egypt and Pakistan, have seen notable drops.

“The reason for such a decline might be attributable to the loss of income of foreign workers that have become unemployed and either stayed in the region to look for employment or returned to their country of origin,” the report said. Which makes sense, especially when you consider the state of the construction industry in some areas. In fact, according to the paper, the IOM makes special mention of Dubai freezing its infrastructure projects, which caused an estimated 20 percent drop in temporary contractual workers in the country in 2009.

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Tags: expat remittances, gulf remittances, middle east remittances, migrants gulf, migrants middle east, migrants uae, remittances, uae remittances