page_title: Remittances from the United States
section_title: Honduras
hierarchical_section_title: Remittances from the United States / Latin America / Honduras
caption_attribution_description: English: City of La Esperanza Intibuca Honduras
context_page_description: International money transfers made by migrant workers and immigrants sending a portion of their earnings to their families in their country of origin are known as remittances. Remittances are an important aspect of the global economy, totaling an estimated $601 billion for the year 2015. The United States is currently the largest source of international remittances in the world, sending a total of $56.3 billion in 2015. Mexico received the largest portion of these remittances, accounting for an estimated $25.2 billion, making the U.S.-Mexico remittance corridor one of the largest in the world. With the exception of the 2008 global financial crisis, remittances sent from the U.S. have been consistently climbing for the past half century. This major increase in remittances can be partially attributed to the larger population of immigrants and migrant workers, as well as to increasing globalization in the financial and money markets. China and India are also major recipients of U.S. remittances, and are the top two recipients of remittances globally.
  Remittances from the U.S. to Latin America have been on the decline in the 2000s and 2010s.
context_section_description: In 2008 Honduras received US$2.8 billion in remittances. This accounted for over 20% of their GDP that year. 91.4% of Honduran remittances were sent from Hondurans in the United States. In 2014 International remittances to Honduras accounted for 17.4% of their GDP. in 2015 Honduras received $3.3 billion from the United States alone, accounting for 16.4% of their total GDP that year. In 2014 no other South American country received a higher percentage of their GDP in remittances than Honduras. 
  Remittances in Honduras are primarily used for basic living expenses at the household level. Within the country, remittances are the third largest source of income for households. Remittances also play a secondary role of bringing a level investment back into small capital starved communities. Returning Honduran migrants often contribute to community development through their investments in the local private sector. In the town of La Esperanza, returning migrants finance 11% of businesses development.
  Within Honduras, remittance services are largely provided by banks as well as local micro-finance institutions. In the U.S. most Honduran migrants do not have the proper legal U.S. documentation such as valid U.S. entry visas or social security numbers. Many of these migrants were also too young when the left Honduras to hold any official Honduran identification. This makes their financial inclusion into the U.S. banking system difficult. Because of this, they typically rely on non-banking institutions, such as MTOs (money transfer operators) to provide them with the remittance services they need.  Due to convenience and low cost, formal remittance channels have become the primary method Honduran immigrants use to send remittances back to their families. About 92% of Honduran remittances are sent through the formal system of regulated MTOs.
caption: La Esperanza
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