Undated: (Remittances, the Billion-Dollar Lifeline Sent by the Haitian Diaspora to Family and Friends Back Home, Exceeding All Export Revenue Combined, With …

Undated: (Remittances, the Billion-Dollar Lifeline Sent by the Haitian Diaspora to Family and Friends Back Home, Exceeding All Export Revenue Combined, With Roughly Half the Population Having Received Money From Abroad at Some Point): Remittances from the Haitian diaspora are not supplementary income. They are the economic backbone of the country. Official transfers through Western Union and similar services approach one billion dollars annually, and when you add the unofficial money carried by visiting friends and family, the real figure may reach two billion. That is more than double the value of all Haitian exports combined. Roughly seventy-five percent of these transfers come from Haitians living in the United States. Nearly half the Haitian population has received remittances at some point, and twenty percent receive them regularly. The average individual transfer is less than two hundred dollars, but the frequency adds up. Most of the money goes to daily living expenses and education. What this means structurally is that Haiti’s economy depends not on what the country produces or what its government manages, but on the labor of its people scattered across the globe, sending money home to keep their families alive. It is an economy built on exile.