RemittancesGateway.org

Remittances good for U.S. businesses

Monday, 22 February 2010 08:50

Source: The Miami Herald
By Kristin Johnson

Below are excerpts from the report ``Many Happy Returns -- Remittances and their Impact: How Money Sent Home by Migrant Workers Helps the American Economy'' by Kristin Johnson.

The remittances Haitians receive will be extremely important to their recovery process. Furthermore, the money that leaves the United States in the form of remittances will be used by Haitians to purchase U.S. exports. Over half of Haiti's imports originate in the United States, and the states with the most Haitian immigrants also have large export markets in Haiti. In this way, the remittances that immigrants here send abroad have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and trade.

 

There are approximately 535,000 Haitians living in the U.S.

Florida has the largest Haitian population -- 46.4 percent of Haitians in the United States live in Florida; 24.1 percent live in New York; 7.6 percent live in New Jersey, and 7.1 percent live in Massachusetts.

Haitians' remittances to family members in Haiti constitute a significant part of the Haitian economy.

Haitians in the United States have maintained ties to their families in Haiti, and the Haitian economy has become increasingly reliant on money sent by Haitians living abroad. Approximately one in five households in Haiti receives remittances.

According to Haiti's Central Bank, Haitians send approximately $1 billion per year to Haiti, more than a quarter of the country's GDP. Remittances are an increasingly important source of income to Haitians; total remittances are larger than the total annual foreign direct investment and annual revenue from exports.

The majority of Haitians who receive remittances are very poor. The World Bank found that 55 percent of remittance-receiving households do not have any other income.

Remittances sent to Haiti are largely spent on the provision of basic needs: housing, food, clothing and medicine.

The United States has a positive trade balance with Haiti, indicating that Haiti purchases more imports from the United States than it exports here. Between 1990 and 2009, between 50-60 percent of imports into Haiti originated in the United States. Rice, wheat and meat products comprise the largest dollar amounts in terms of exported goods.

Florida has both the largest Haitian-born population in the United States and the largest share of Haiti's export market. In 2008, nearly 24 percent of Haiti's exports from the United States came from Florida. Haiti was Florida's 37th largest export market in 2008, ranging in value from 34th to 37th between 2000 and 2008, with the 2004 dollar value of these exports reaching $223,241,000.

New York ranks sixth in total U.S. state exports to Haiti, realizing $34,677,000 in exports there in 2008.

New Jersey is the 10th-largest state exporter to Haiti, with $22,157,000 in export revenues