What do those who leave to work owe the families they leave, and the places they go?
Millions of people work in a country that is not their own and send part of their pay home. What is owed to them, to those who wait for them, and to the places that take them in?
The picture
What the numbers show, read from the Data library each time the page opens.
How to read the chart above, and the words it uses (for money sent home).
How to read the data
The figure is the money that workers abroad send to families in their home country, compared with that country’s yearly output. Only recorded transfers are counted, so money sent by informal routes is missed.
Key terms
Remittances
Money that migrants send to relatives or others in their home country.
Recorded transfers
Payments that pass through banks and money-transfer firms and are reported to statisticians.
GDP
Gross domestic product: the value of what a country produces in a year.
Who has a stake
Each interest, then readings from the Catholic library and the Classics library that bear on it, oldest first. Choose a group to read.
Fair pay and conditions, the same rights as other workers, and the means to support those at home without being exploited or cut off from them.
The income that keeps a household fed and its children in school, and the presence of a son, daughter, husband or wife whose absence is a real loss.
An orderly way of taking in workers that serves the common good, protects their own jobs and wages, and does not leave newcomers outside the law.
Willing hands for work that needs doing, and a legitimate claim to fair terms; a duty to pay a just wage on time and not to take advantage of a worker’s need.
For discussion
What is a worker abroad owed in pay and rights, and how far does that depend on whether the worker entered by the host country’s rules?
A worker’s absence is a loss to the family and to the home country, and a gain to the place of work. How should these be weighed in deciding who should be encouraged to go?
How should the interests of the host country’s own workers be weighed against those of newcomers who will do the same work for less?
