On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a draft of President Donald Trump’s new budget. Among the 1,038-page text is a proposal to place a 3.5% tax on financial transfers sent by non-U.S. citizens.
These transfers, known as remittances, equaled $85.8 billion in 2023 just from the U.S., out of more than $800 billion globally, while official development assistance, or ODA, was $223.3 billion in the same year.
“On a global scale, remittance flows have exceeded development aid and foreign direct investment,” said Marcela Escobari, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.