translated from Spanish: Sending Guatemalan remittances to record 2019

Guatemala.- The sending of family remittances of Guatemalan migrants abroad, mainly in the United States, grew 13.1% in 2019 compared to 2018 and reached a historical code, the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat, central) reported on Thursday. Guatemala received $10.5 billion last year, up from $9,287 million in 2018, according to a Banguat report.

Remittances are a support of Guatemala’s economy that contributes a similar amount to export revenues, which on average reach $11 billion annually. The growth in remittances came despite the U.S. deporting Guatemalan 54,599 in 2019, 5.9% more than the previous year, the highest level of expulsions ever recorded. In 2018, Guatemalan 51,376 were deported from the United States, according to guatemala’s Institute of Migración.La chancellery estimates that about 2.7 million Guatemalans are in the United States, but only 400,000 are legally . The data is known against a backdrop of tensions over illegal migration from northern Central America to the United States, which has signed agreements with area countries to try to stem the exodus of thousands of people fleeing violence and poverty. The agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras commit these countries to receive foreign migrants to process their asylum applications in the United States.

Original source in Spanish