Migrants in the EU27 sent about ?20 billion to third countries in 2006

The money sent by migrants to their former country of residence, usually referred to as workers' remittances¹, from the EU27 Member States amounted to ?26 bn in 2006, compared with ?23 bn in 2005. These figures include both intra-EU27 and extra-EU27 flows. Flows to other Member States accounted for a much lower share than flows to countries outside the EU27. In 2006, intra-EU27 flows accounted for ?7 bn or one quarter of the total, and extra-EU27 flows for ?19 bn or three quarters, the same proportions as in 2005. Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and France are the main remitting Member States. These five Member States account for more than 85% of total EU27 remittances.

The data show that, in 2006, the EU27 as a whole remitted more than double the amount it received from third countries (?19 bn sent compared to ?9 bn received)

These are the main results of a recent survey of Member States' statistics carried out by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In response to an increasing demand for data on workers' remittances, Eurostat launched an ad hoc survey asking Member States to provide statistics on remittances. It should be noted that the data provided by the Member States take account of flows officially recorded within the framework of balance of payments statistics. Money sent through informal or illegal channels are not usually recorded and therefore not part of the statistics resulting from this survey. This data is complemented by a new study financed by the European Commission.

Workers' remittance outflows from the EU27, ? billion

Source: Eurostat

Workers' remittance outflows from EU Member States in 2006, ? billion

* Eurostat estimates

Source: Eurostat

Main corridors and regions of destination of EU27 remittances

A study², which was financed by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), provides non-official estimates of the volume and the geographical breakdown of workers' remittance flows from the EU. Using a statistical model to indirectly estimate workers' remittances from migrants' disposable income and their propensity to remit, the study for the first time presents workers' remittance flows from the 27 EU Member States by origin and destination countries for the years 2000 to 2004. These data include money sent through both formal and informal channels and in addition the compilation approach is different from the official data collected by Eurostat. Therefore the two data sets should not be directly compared. However, these estimates provide an overview of the geographical breakdown which complements the Eurostat survey.

In 2004, the 10 most important remittance corridors identified were Germany-Turkey, France-Morocco, France-Portugal, Spain-Morocco, Spain-Colombia, Germany-Poland, Spain-Ecuador, France-Algeria, Italy-Albania, and Germany-Serbia and Montenegro. Apart from intra-EU remittance flows, the main global regions of destination were non-EU Europe, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Workers' remittances from the EU27 - Breakdown by global regions of destination (? billion), 2004

Source: Commission Services calculations based on Jiménez-Martín et al. (2007)

1. In the Balance of Payments statistics framework workers’ remittances covers goods and financial instruments transferred by migrants living and working in new economies to residents of economies in which the migrant formerly resided. In the statistics presented, only money transfers are covered.

Data on remittances are difficult to compile, because they represent numerous, small transactions through a large variety of channels. Therefore, in a number of countries there are concerns over data quality. The users need to bear this in mind when using the data.

1. The study was carried out by Sergi Jiménez-Martín, Natalia Jorgensen and José María Labeaga at the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA) in Madrid. It is available in English language for download at:

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/index_en.htm