Immigrants’ Globalization Philanthropy

In just the last four years, recognition of the significance of transnational philanthropy has burgeoned. The term is used somewhat differently in different quarters, however. Narrowly, it refers to transfers of charitable contributions from immigrants to charitable organizations in their home countries, a flow that is also called “diaspora philanthropy.” More comprehensively, it refers to the combination of such purposeful philanthropy together with immigrant worker remittances to their families or home communities in their country of origin.

The subject has recently gained the attention of no less than the World Bank, which now puts the remittance and philanthropic transfer total globally at $90 billion, nearly twice the total flow of Official Development Assistance from developed nations to developing nations.

By any metric, the numbers are impressive. There are, for example, 7.6 million document and undocumented Philippine migrants working in over 190 countries. Between 1990 and 2003, they returned to the Philippines over $62 billion. In 2003 alone, that flow was $7.6 billion in remittances and $218 million in charitable contributions. That total is nearly 10% of the nation’s Gross National Product, and these flows keep an estimated one million people above the local poverty line.

Mexican elected officials increasingly come to the U.S. to pitch local development projects to Mexican immigrant community organizations in major U.S. cities.

Private philanthropy deserves a seat (indeed, several seats) at the global economic development table. Both its size and its role in civil society argue for the presence of its leadership at that table.

It is interesting that it appears that the private philanthropic actions of 175 million individual immigrants, not the power of foundation behemoths, finally got the attention of global development. Power to the people, indeed.

[Excerpts from an article by Susan Raymond, Ph.D., ]