Foreigners working in Arab Gulf states sent more than $100 billion in remittances to their home countries last year, according to the AFP/Saudi Gazette, a figure twice as high as 2010.
The remittances are estimated at 6.2 percent of the combined GDP of the six GCC states of $1.6 trillion, the AFP reports, citing IMF and World Bank figures. In 2012, remittances for the Gulf region crossed the $75 billion mark which is 50 per cent larger than the amount remitted from the United States for the same year.
Saudi Arabia topped the list with its estimated 10 million expats sending home $44 billion. The report attributed the high level of remittances to curbs applied by GCC states on foreign ownership and investment.
“And unlike in Western countries, foreigners have no hope of acquiring citizenship in GCC states regardless of the duration of residence,” the Saudi Gazette reports.
