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More than just money

In addition to money, immigrants in wealthier countries also send home ideas about education and family planning.

In 2006, money transfers made by Immigrant workers to their native countries totalled nearly $300 billion, three times the amount the world’s governments spent on development aid. But when immigrants in wealthier countries transfer funds to their families back home, they send more than just money. They also send their adopted country’s dominant ideas about education and family planning.

Demographer Philippe Fargues discovered the birth rates in countries from which people primarily emigrated to Europe—such as Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia—fell sharply as fund transfers shot up. Countries whose citizens mainly emigrated to Middle Eastern nations—such as Egypt and Jordan—show a much less pronounced decline or even a rise in birth rates. Fargues concluded that immigrants convey the dominant European views on marrying later in life and the importance of education for girls.

“International Migration, Economic Development, and Policy,” a report released last year by the World Bank that describes Fargues’ research, also includes a study by economist Çaglar Özden. Özden’s research shows that international emigration to sections of South Asia and Central America promotes the education of girls and improves their health. In Pakistan, for example, 54 percent more girls went to school as a direct consequence of emigration compared to an increase of 7 percent among boys. In addition, girls stay in school an average of two years longer when one of their family members leaves to work abroad.