This is phenomenal: A Pew Research Center survey reveals immigrants to Canada, and especially temporary foreign workers, send more dollars per capita in remittances out of Canada than immigrants and migrant workers in almost any other nation, including the U.S., Germany and Britain. These remittance centres are the unassuming face of a globalized money transfer industry that has tripled in value in a decade — to $529 billion a year, according to the World Bank. A recent Simon Fraser University study found more than 300 MoneyMart and Western Union remittance outlets in Metro Vancouver alone. That doesn’t include the many independent remittance centres, operating in dozens of languages. The amount of money that leaves Canada in remittances is staggering. At $24 billion a year in 2012, according to the World Bank, the sum is equivalent to the annual budgets of 12 Universities of British Columbia. Or enough to buy 70 of Vancouver’s tallest building, the Shangri-La tower. - vancouversun/opinion/columnists/Remittances+billion+year+sent+home+from+Canada/10080290/story.html
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 16:41:26 +0000