Finding work in other countries is one of the main drivers of international migration. Migrants who travel across the world to work elsewhere frequently send remittances — money to help support family or friends in their home countries.
The Pew Research Center has an interactive tool to visualize flows of remittances in 2012 to and from different countries, based on data from the World Bank.
According to Pew, migrants to the United States are responsible for sending almost a quarter of the global total of international remittances. We used the World Bank's database of 2012 remittance flows to make a map showing which countries are the destinations for remittances from the U.S.
The World Bank has data on remittances from the U.S. to 155 different countries, adding up to a total of about $123 billion sent home by migrants.
The countries with the biggest flows were Mexico, India, China, and the Philippines. Mexico had almost $23 billion in remittances, and migrants from each of India, China, and the Philippines sent over $10 billion home.
Below are the twenty countries with the largest flows of remittance payments from the U.S.
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