Who in the United States Sends and Receives Remittances? An InitialAnalysis of the Monetary Transfers Data from the August 2008 CPS Migration Supplement

Elizabeth Grieco, U.S. Census Bureau
G. Patricia de la Cruz, U.S. Census Bureau
Rachel Cortes, U.S. Census Bureau
Luke J. Larsen, U.S. Census Bureau

In August 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau fielded a supplement to the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) base questionnaire. The Migration Supplement included questions on remittances (monetary transfers) and four additional topics – citizenship, year of entry, residence one year ago, and residents and emigrants abroad. The monetary transfers section is especially significant because it represents the first time questions on both the giving and receiving of transfers were included on a large, federally sponsored, nationally representative survey in the United States. It is also significant because the questions were administered to all households, both native and foreign born. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it will describe the CPS Migration Supplement, a new source of migration-related data. Second, it will discuss the quality of the monetary transfers data and present some initial results on the prevalence, frequency, and amount of transfers sent and received.