DID THE RECENT ECONOMIC CRISIS IMPACT REMITTANCES? EVIDENCE FROM TRANSITION COUNTRIES

Abstract

Remittances, funds transferred from migrants to their home country, are a very important source of income for households and small businesses in most transition countries. The paper documents the recent downturn in migrant’s remittances to selected transition countries due to the recent global economic crisis. The research concentrates on the Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine representing important sources of migrants. The paper shows how the global economic downturn affected remittance flows sent to the selected set of countries. In particular, the paper questions whether migration, thereby remittances, work as a transmission mechanism or important regional or global economic

Keywords

• International Migration, Remittances, Financial crisis, Eastern Europe, Eastern Partnership

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