Immigrants and Remittances: The Financial Ties That Bind

Abstract

I use the nationally representative survey of legal permanent residents (LPRs) entitled "The New Immigrant Survey 2003 (NIS)" to answer the following questions:1) Are low-skilled remitters different than high-skilled remitters?2) What is the overall profile of a remitter?In answering the aforementioned questions, I establish a strong background regarding the immigrant structure of the United States, potential reasons for both migrating and remitting, and a solid understanding of the overall concept of remittances and past literature that has investigated a similar topic. My findings show that the major differences that exist amongst high-skilled and low-skilled respondents are found with regards to gender, marital status, number of children in the household, age of the respondent, religion, and the respondent's family's income during childhood. The findings also show that the typical remitter as established by the sample used in this paper is a middle-aged Muslim male who owns assets outside of the United States.