Glossary:Workers remittance
Workers' remittance was defined in the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM5) as transfer made by migrants employed and resident in the compiling economy to their relatives in their country of origin. Workers' remittances include household to household transfers in cash and in kind. Funds sent by migrants to their country of origin to purchase real estate or invest in local business are recorded not as remittances but as foreign direct investment transactions.
The new edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6, IMF 2008) introduces new definitions of remittances. “Personal remittances” as defined by BPM6 include “personal transfers“ (which include "of which workers' remittances") and compensation of employees, but exclude taxes, social contributions and expenditure on transport and travel made by short term and cross border workers. BPM6 "personal transfers" are defined independently of the source of income and of the origin of the sending household.
Further information
- Balance of Payments Manual, 5th edition, IMF 1993
- Balance of Payments Manual, 6th edition, IMF 2008
- EU remittances back on the increase in 2010 - Statistics in focus 4/2012