Mexico now receives more remittances than China

When covid-19 began to spread in early 2020, bosses in the United States booted millions of foreign-born workers from their jobs. That risked catastrophe for households across Latin America and the Caribbean, many of which cover essential expenses with . What happened next was a surprise. After crashing briefly, the amount remitted to these countries soared. Last year remittances reached a whopping $142bn, 48% more than in 2019.The surge owes much to stimulus in the United States, which put dollars back in pockets, as well as to the , who have dug deep to help relatives in need. Yet bumper flows during the pandemic capped what had already been a decade of fast-rising remittance growth. Over ten years the sums sent home annually to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have more than doubled, according to the World Bank. That is a swifter rate of increase than in any other region.