Remittances occur from rich countries to poor countries. We can be pretty sure that the United States residents do not receive remittances from Somalia or Haiti. The bulk of the remittances comes mostly from the United States and western Europe.

The calculations are based on town and worldwide populations:

  1. The population of Framingham is slightly over 68,000.
  2. The population of the world is approximately 6.8 billion.
  3. Total worldwide remittances in 2013 amounted to $550 billion.

Since many transactions go unrecorded or happen through informal channels, the actual amount of money that diaspora members sent to friends and family members overseas this year might be significantly higher.

On the assumption that Framingham residents do not receive any remittances, we can use these three figures to roughly calculate the amount of money sent from Framingham to the rest of the world (and this is a very conservative estimate) .

68,000 / 6,800,000,000 * 550,000,000,000 = $5,500,000

Assuming only rich countries send out remittances and their populations are approximately 2.0 billion, then the number is:

68,000 / 2,000,000,000 * 550,000,000,000 = $18,7000,000

Now, let's assume that there are 12,000 immigrants (liberal code word for illegal aliens) in Framingham. Just go downtown and see if you can converse in English.

This makes the annual remittance to $1,558 per immigrant or $130 month. This is a very conservative estimate.

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com