FEBRUARY 09

Strong remittance inflows should be used as an opportunity to strengthen the systems that help overseas workers and their families back at home.

Toward the latter half of 2020, remittance inflows remained strong for some of the countries in Asia and the Pacific with the largest number of outbound migrants. This was encouraging in light of the massive decline recorded in the second quarter of that year, when the economies of the countries that host migrants sharply contracted due to the pandemic.

Many Asian migrant workers seem to have withstood the waves of economic hardships, sending home record amounts of money in months following a large slump between April and May 2020. All countries with available data, except Fiji and Kazakhstan, witnessed recoveries in remittance inflows by June that were sustained until July. Remittances to Fiji almost reached pre-COVID-19 growth recorded in January but fell again in August and then bounced back to a record high in October.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 10, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.