Women send home more money than men: UN Report

Women immigrants send a higher proportion of their income home that men, according to the state of the population report of the United Nations Population Fund released today.

At 95 million, women constitute almost half the international migrants. The total money women send home is less than men, though.

Describing women migrants as a "silent but mighty river," the report says in 2005, remittances sent by migrants to their country of origin all over the world touched around $232 billion. Of this, $167 billion went to the developing countries.

India received around $22 billion, more than China, Mexico and the Philippines.

Out of more than $1 billion sent by Sri Lankan immigrants in 1999, women contributed 62 per cent while in the Philippines, women contributed one-third of the $6 billion remitted annually.

The report, citing a study, says Bangladeshi women working in the Middle-East send 72 per cent earnings home

The report carries stories of women migrants from diverse backgrounds like domestic workers, farm labourers, waitresses and highly skilled professionals and studies the consequences of migration of nurses to rich countries, causing a healthcare crisis in the poor countries.

It says in Ghana, double the number of nurses who had graduated left in 2000. Two years later, the government estimated that 57 per cent vacancies of nurses were vacant.

Similar vacancies were reported in Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, whose 80 per cent of trained nurses are employed abroad, the report says.