migration
I'm wary about writing about topics that are too U.S.-centric, primarily for my own sake, but you can't escape your past. I spent some time from about 2002 to 2006 working on immigration issues in the United States as part of the post 9-11 cottage industry of non-profit workers assisting what have been called 'Muslim-looking people" and then writing about it. I just note those experiences for the record because they color how I talk about present-day politics around immigration - especially since I haven't been in the United States for 3 1/2 years.
3 Mar 2009
Bangladesh expatriates sent home a record $6.148 billion in remittances during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, marking a 27.01 percent growth over the same period of the last fiscal year.
"The flow of remittances is still at a satisfactory level," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, told AHN Media in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The BB official also said that the total amount of remittances dropped slightly in February over that of the previous month due mainly to fewer working days.
18 Jan 2009
Remittances to Pakistan rose by 24.0% year-on-year in July-November 2007, demonstrating the importance of the emigrant community. Remittances in fiscal year 2006/07 reached 4.3% of GDP. This has helped Pakistan's economy to remain relatively resilient to political turbulence. Since a growing amount of remittances come from the Middle East rather than the USA, this should provide some insulation in the event of a slowdown in the US economy.
