Remittance activity among Brazilians in the United States and Canada

Franklin Goza, Bowling Green State University
Igor Ryabov, University of Texas at El Paso

This cross-national study uses data collected in 1990 and 1991 to examine the remittance behavior of Brazilians who had then recently arrived in Canada and the United States. These data permit an examination of remittance activity soon after the arrival of this group in both locales. Prior to contrasting remittance activity among these two groups, we document the extremely high degree of similarities between them. Next, we examine three policy relevant dependant variables as multivariate analyses are undertaken to determine: (1) who remits, (2) how much they remit, and (3) when funds are remitted for productive purposes. Furthermore, because the data analyzed were collected in Canada and the United States using the same instrument, these results enable important contrasts based on country of destination. Results for two of the dependent variables (i.e., who remits and amount remitted) often conformed to expectations. However, the models predicting remittance usage were less successful.