Jordan ranks fourth in region as recipient of remittances

AMMAN — Remittances of Jordanian expatriates stood at $3.8 billion in the year 2015, according to a World Bank report.

“Migration and Remittances Factbook” for the year 2016, which was developed by the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, listed Jordan fourth in the region in terms of the volume of remittances in 2015.

Egypt ranked first ($20.4 billion), Lebanon followed ($7.5 billion) and Morocco came third ($6.7 billion).

President of the Jordanian Exchange Association Alaa Eddine Diraniyeh told The Jordan Times that cash transfers by Jordanians come mostly from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

He added that there are transfers from the US and Europe but the amount is not comparable to that from the Gulf. However, he noted that there has been a notable rise in the amount of transfers in 2015 compared to the year before.

Last year, remittances reached over $3.66 billion (JD2.6 billion).  

According to the World Bank Factbook of 2015, worldwide remittance flows are estimated to have exceeded $601 billion. Of that amount, developing countries are estimated to receive about $441 billion, nearly three times the amount of official development assistance. 

The actual size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be significantly larger, it added.

 In 2015, the top recipient countries of recorded remittances were India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and France. 

High-income countries are the main source of remittances, the report stated, adding that the US is by far the largest source country, with an estimated $56.3 billion in recorded outflows in 2014. Saudi Arabia ranks the second largest, followed by the Russia, Switzerland, Germany, the UAE and Kuwait. 

The six GCC countries accounted for $98 billion in outward remittance flows in 2014.

The Factbook also tackled the issue of migration, indicating that the top migrant destination country is the US, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, the Russian Federation, the UAE, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain and Australia. 

The top six immigration countries, relative to population, are outside the high-income OECD countries and all are Arab countries: Qatar (91 per cent), the UAE (88 per cent), Kuwait (72 per cent), Jordan (56 per cent) and Bahrain (54 per cent).

Excluding refugees from the West Bank and Gaza, the number of refugees in 2014 was 14.4 million, or 6 per cent of international migrants in 2013. About 86 per cent of refugees are hosted by developing countries. Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Chad and Uganda are the largest host countries.