UAE Expats 2nd Most Generous in the Gulf

A new report by the World Bank informs on the global remittance trends in 2012. According to the Migration and Development Brief, more than $61 billion of the entire remittance for last year came from the Gulf region. That is about 12% of the whole remittance in the world for 2012. In addition, UAE expats were among the most generous in the Middle East. They managed to send more than $14,250 to India alone.

The situation was not much different in the other Gulf countries where nearly 50% of the all the remittances went to India. Saudi Arabia expats were found to have sent away almost 40% of all Gulf remittances in 2012. That amounts to more than $24 billion. Second is the United Arab Emirates which sent remittances of over $18 billion or nearly 30% of all remittances in the region.

Expats in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman also contributed to the economies of their home countries by sending remittances of $7.18 billion, $6.77 billion and $3.52, respectively.

As it was mentioned earlier, the most popular remittance destination for Gulf countries in 2012 was India. The South Asian country received nearly $30 billion from its expats in the Middle East. However, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan were also sent a large amount of remittances from the GCC.

In contrast, US and UK expats in the Gulf sent barely $81 million and $74 million, respectively. That accounts for only 2% of the total remittances in the region.

The report states that GCC expats were also recorded to have sent money to their homelands. Remittances from Gulf expatriates reached more than $280 million in 2012. Again, Saudi Arabia leads the ranking in this category.

World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief also informs on the global remittance trends in general for 2012. According to the study, last year, the remittances sent out by expats amounted to over $507 billion. In addition, the research has found that about 1 billion people in the world have moved to a foreign country in the effort to find better living conditions. As a consequence, the remittance rates have quadrupled in developing countries for a 12-year period. In 2000, remittances there were estimated at $132 billion. Last year, they reached more than $500 billion.

The most common remittance recipients for 2012 are India with $69 billion, China with $60 billion, the Philippines with $24 billion and Mexico with $23 billion.

Here are the top destination countries for remittance sent by expats in the UAE:

• India – $14,255 million
• Pakistan – $1,493 million
• Philippines – $700 million
• Egypt – $650 million
• Sri Lanka – $504 million
• Bangladesh – $401 million
• Yemen – $96 million
• Sudan – $74 million
• Iran – $41 million