Sonia Plaza: Migrant money as the hidden force in global economics

The lecture explores what happened to remittances in the global economy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the importance of diaspora skills and investments. It shows how the pandemic affected remittance flows in different world regions, reveals reasons behind resilience of remittances, and analyses their impact on macro and micro (household) level. The lecture summarizes top recipients of remittances globally in 2020, provides data on remittance inflows to Slovakia, and analyses outlook for remittances in 2021. It points out the issue of costs of sending remittances as well as policy responses aimed at supporting migrants, migrants’ families and remittance infrastructure.

This lecture was part of the 8th EMN Educational Seminar on Migration entitled "Migration in a Multilateral World". The Seminar is organised by the International Organization for Migration Slovakia as the coordinator of the Slovak EMN National Contact Point. This activity is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.

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