People expatriate for many reasons. Immigrants also come from all sorts of economic backgrounds. We often think of immigrants as refugees, those fleeing war, famine, disease, political difficulties, and other factors. These are a significant portion of the immigrant population, and they account for a lot of the money that is transferred being origin and adoptive countries. But refugees represent only a percentage of the overall immigrant population. Others are people of means, who are simply looking for a better way of life, either in a geographical, political, or economic climate. The name “immigrant” may describe all sorts of different types, going all sorts of different places, but one characteristic is the same across the board: They need to send money back home using a trusted international money transfer company.
Immigrants tend to move from their home nation to a country that is more wealthy. You can see this in many African, Asian, Central American, and Eastern European countries. Many of the world’s wealthiest nations complain that too many immigrants are entering their borders. But the reality is that most immigrants do not move to the wealthiest nations available to them. Statisticians at the World Bank show that most migrants tend to go to a nation that is only somewhat more wealthy than their own. This makes sense, as it can be seen as a step up, an improvement of degree not of kind. There are exceptions to this general rule, as people in poverty do often find their way into the wealthiest countries on the planet. In other instances, some wealthy individuals relocate to nations that are very poor, in order to take advantage of a more inexpensive way of life.
Most migrants are not wealthy. They move to work and are forced to send some of their money back home to friends and loved ones using the services of money transfer companies. For many years, this industry consisted of large players like Moneygram and Western Union. Many of these would charge near-usurious rates to transfer the meager savings of these hard workers. But today, mobile and web technologies have brought a lot more startups into this space, driving down costs significantly. Where exchange companies used to take 11% or higher, as a matter of industry standard, it is not at all uncommon to see newer companies taking less that 7%. It’s a much better day for migrants in this regard, many of whom have less than $200 to send in any one transfer and want to see as much as possible reach their families.
So, whether you are moving to work, to invest, or just to enjoy living in another part of the world, you will need to take advantage of the services of a good money transfer company. The site linked above does a lot of great work making this process a lot easier for the average person. Questions are answered, terms are explained, and the hard work of analyzing lots of different industry players is done. You will have the best rates that exist, and you’ll get a lot more out of your efforts, as will the people and back-home-investments you are sending money to.
