ABSTRACT
Remittances are the share of income that migrants abroad send home. Remittances have both micro and macro effects on migrant-sending countries. They generally reduce poverty in families receiving them because remittances usually exceed what would have been earned if the migrant had stayed at home, and their spending often improves nutrition and health care for children in migrant families. The macro effects of remittances are more uncertain. On the one hand, remittances can provide scarce foreign exchange while on the other they can raise the exchange rate and make it harder to export goods.
