WEBVTT

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I live in Washington, D.C.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But I grew up in Sindhekela, a village in Orissa
in India.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My father was a government worker.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My mother could not read or write, but she

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
would say to me, "A king is worshiped only in his

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
own kingdom. A poet is respected everywhere."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So I wanted to be a poet when I grew up.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But I almost didn't go to college

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
until an aunt offered financial help.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I went to study in ___,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the largest town in the region,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
where, already in college, I saw a
television for the first time.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I had dreams of going to the United States

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for higher studies.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When the opportunity came,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I crossed two oceans, with borrowed money

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for airfare, and only a 20 dollar bill in my pocket.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In the U.S., I worked in a research center,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
part-time, while taking graduate classes in economics

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and with the little I earned, I would

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
finance myself and then I would send

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
money home to my brother and mother.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My story is not unique.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There are millions of people who migrate each year.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
With the help of the family, they cross oceans,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they cross deserts, they cross rivers, they cross mountains.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They risk their lives to realize a dream,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that dream is as simple as having a

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
decent job so they can send money home

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and help the family,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
which has helped them before.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There are 232 million international migrants in the world.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
These are people who live in a country

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
other than their country of birth.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If there was a country made up of

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
only international migrants,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that would be larger in population

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
than Brazil.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
That would be larger in its size

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the economy than France.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Some 180 million of them, from poor countries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
send money home regularly.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Those sums of money are called remittences.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Here is a fact that might surprise you:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
413 billion dollars, 413 billion dollars

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was the amount of remittences sent last year

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by migrants to developing countries.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Migrants from developing countries,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
money sent to developing countries--

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
413 billion dollars.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
That's a remarkable number

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that is three times the size of

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the total of development aid money.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And yet, you and I,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
my colleagues in Washington,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we endlessly debate and

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
discuss about development aid

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
while we ignore remittences as small change.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
True, people send 200 dollars per month

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on average, but repeated month after month,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
by millions of people,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
sums of money add up to rivers 
of foreign currency.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So, India last year received 72 billion dollars, larger than

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
its IT exports.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Egypt, in Egypt remittences are three times

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the size of revenues from the Suez Canal.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In Tajikistan, remittences are forty-two percent of GDP.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In poorer countries, smaller countries, conflict

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
afflicted countries, remittences are a lifeline,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as in Somalia or in Haiti.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
No wonder these flows have huge

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
impacts on economies and on poor people.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Remittences, unlike private investment money,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they don't flow back at the first

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
sign of trouble in the country.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They actually act like an insurance.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When the family is in trouble,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
facing hardship, facing hard times,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
remittences increase, they act like an insurance.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Migrants send more money then.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999