Who are the
most generous foreign nationals in the UK to send money home?
Almost 40pc
of remittances sent in the Christmas period are declared as gifts, with Poles,
Nigerians and Americans sending the most money home.
Poles, Nigerians and Americans living in the UK
are the most generous when it comes to sending money back home at Christmas
time.
Nigeria and
Poland receive about a third of the $20bn (£12.8bn) in remittances that leave
the UK each year, according to Azimo, the online money transfer service.
Polish
people sent an average of £986 each over five transactions from December 1 to
17, while the average Nigerian customer sent a total of £898 across four
transfers.
Americans
sent £819 each to the US, the average Ghanaian sent £692 and Kenyans sent home
£654 each during the festive period.
Austria, Lithuania, Germany, Norway and
Argentina round out the top 10.
While 75pc
of year-round transfers are to support families with essential living
requirements such as buying food and paying bills and are usually sent to one
or two recipients, almost 40pc of remittances sent in December are declared as
gifts.
The average
transfer value drops from £400 to £200 in December but up to six times the
number of transactions are processed, suggesting that people are sending
seasonal gifts to more people rather than essential cash to one main bill
payer.
Azimo, which
is available in 19 countries and transfers to 198 countries, cited research
showing that three in four migrant workers in the UK save money to be able to
send something home each month.
The World
Bank estimated that $582bn in remittances will be sent globally this year, of
which $435bn will go to developing countries. Those figures rise to $608bn and
$454bn for 2015.
Facebook is
reportedly working on its own money wiring service , which would allow it to
cash in on the billions of dollars that are sent abroad each year as well as
extend its reach in emerging markets.
Michael
Kent, chief executive of Azimo, said: “Britain’s migrants are not only amongst
the most hard-working but also the most generous in our society they send a
significant portion of their income home each month to support close family,
extended family and even whole local communities.”
Roughly
600,000 Poles and 200,000 Nigerians live in the UK, where salaries are 3.5
times and 13 times higher respectively than their homes countries.
Mr Kent
called these workers “the heroes spreading the Christmas cheer.”
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