The story of remittance flows from the GCC countries

Abstract

The GCC countries have positioned themselves as the highest remitters in the world, collectively beating the United States, the traditional top remitter. The aggregate official remittance outflows from the Gulf region crossed the $75 billion mark in 2012 which is 50 per cent larger than the amount remitted from the United States for the same year. Remittance literature is large but mainly focused on remittance inflows. This paper summarizes the existing literature on remittance outflows. We use the literature findings to discuss the story of remittance outflows from the GCC countries. Remittance outflows in the region have been linked to local labor policies which determine the source of foreign labor. We explore the potential role of remittance outflows in the local economies and the receiving home countries.