Dynamics of Remittance Utilization in Bangladesh

Belgium. In recent years he has focused on development and migration policy issues. Specifically on remittances he has carried out research in Bangladesh, Sub-Saharan Africa and European countries. Tom De Bruyn has prepared this article on the occasion of BASUG’s forum on “Remittances & Expatriates: Development of Bangladesh ” at Golden Tulip (Hotel Bel Air in the Hague on 22 Saturday 2006 – Editor) A renewed interest in remittances Since the end of the 1990s, there is a renewed interest in the financial resources that migrants send back to their countries of origin (see for instance World Bank 2005). In its broadest sense remittances refer to cash or in kind transfers from one place to another. Most of the recent literature and attention focuses however on financial international remittances to developing countries. The main reason for the renewed attention, is the growing volume of official financial remittances to low income countries and their potential contribution to the economic development of the receiving regions. According to estimates of the World Bank (2005) developing countries received 126 billion US $ in 2004 in official remittances. This is 1