World Bank: India ranked highest in migrant remittances at $70B

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- Indians working overseas sent more remittances back home than any other migrant population, according to a World Bank report.

India received $70.39 billion in remittances in 2014, surpassing China's $64.14 billion. India's total was greater than remittances to the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan combined, according to The Wall Street Journal.

India held the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row but the growth in remittances also slowed. The strength of the Indian rupee may have caused Indian workers with savings to wait until a more favorable exchange rate would allow them to send funds home.

For the first time the World Bank report, released Monday, also gave estimates of diaspora savings for different nationalities.

Mexicans own the largest pool of diaspora savings, according to the report, but Indians have the most savings, roughly $44 billion stashed away in countries such as the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

India's Business Standard reported that Indian remittances to relatives back home varied by country.

Total remittances from U.S.-based Indians was $11.18 billion, meaning 2.25 million Indians in the United States sent an average of $4,968.88 home.

Interestingly, Indians working in the United Arab Emirates sent more money home, an average of $7,222.86 per worker, although UAE-based workers were less affluent and typically work in unskilled jobs.

According to the International Union of the Scientific Study of Population, 70 percent of Indian workers in the Middle East work in blue-collar or unskilled jobs. By contrast, Indians in the United States were more educated – with 30 percent of India-born males in occupations related to information technology.

There are a total of 250 million international migrants across all populations, according to the World Bank.