Remittances have become a talking point in Australia's migration debate, with some saying they're draining our economy. But what's the real impact — both for the economy, and for migrants and their families?
Mrinaal Daat, who moved to Australia from India four years ago, regularly sends money back to India — often a few hundred dollars at a time. She told SBS Examines the remittances went towards her partner's parents' medical expenses.
“It just feels like it’s your duty as a child to support them through all their medical procedures,” she said.
Professor Supriya Singh, sociologist of money and migration at La Trobe University, said money is "one of the foremost ways" to show care in many cultures.
If you come from China, you come from Vietnam, you come from any part of the Middle East, you come from the Pacific; sending money home is a way you tell your family that you belong, that you're thinking of them, that you care for them.Professor Supriya Singh
"Across the world, it's the people who do not send money home that are in the minority," she said.
"In Australia, and also in the US and in Europe, among Anglo-Celtic communities, they express care in a different way."
The amount of money being sent overseas as remittances is unclear. Some estimates range from $21 billion to over $38 billion in 2024, with India as the largest recipient.
But Associate Professor of Economics Ryan Edwards, an Associate Professor of Economics at the Australian National University, says we should be sceptical of these numbers.
“We don’t really measure money going out very well ... those numbers are actually much softer,” he said.
Even if those estimates were correct, "that would still be under one per cent of our economy," he added.
In this week’s episode, SBS Examines asks how remittances impact Australia's economy.
