It’s easy to look at the numbers surrounding money sent overseas and realize that there are a very large number of people who leave their home and families behind to pursue better wages and opportunities in other countries. It is estimated that over $350 billion was sent to home countries from foreign lands in 2007 alone, most of it in monthly installments of between $100 and $250.

In several countries with developing economies, remittances can make up as much as one-third of a nation’s gross domestic product. When we look at the remittance market on a macro level, we get an understanding of the sheer size of the money flowing to developing nations.

What we can’t get by looking at the numbers, however, is a sense of the decision making process that goes into leaving one’s home, family, and country to pursue opportunities overseas. Migrant workers often leave home with no guarantees or promises of jobs, only hope that they will find something that suits them when they arrive at their destination.

Many leave home knowing that they will not see their children again for up to several years. These workers leave home for a variety of reasons. For some, it is to escape the clutches of poverty that pass from generation to generation in many developing countries.

For others, they leave a country with a corrupt or violent government in hopes of eventually building a new life abroad and then sending for their family to join them. No matter the reason, the decision to leave is usually a difficult one that calls for great sacrifice both for the worker moving abroad and the family staying behind.

Remittances do a great deal of good for developing economies, and their reach is more powerful than helping family members buy groceries, clothing, and medicine.

The money that is sent in the form of remittances often is more than sufficient to meet the daily needs of living in these small countries and it allows family members to save and invest in themselves and their community. Developing nations would be wise to make the remittance process as easy as possible to encourage even more money to be sent by citizens working abroad.

In the United States, many migrant workers from the same home country have banded together to make the money they send home even more powerful. In addition to sending money to their individual families, many workers will contribute to funds that are pooled and used in times of need, such as after natural disasters.

For instance, Mexican immigrants in the United States have formed thousands of groups to pool funds and send money to those who need it most. The Mexican government, realizing the potential for more money to flow into their country, has encouraged action such as this by matching remittances sent through these organizations.

This is not a permanent answer, as the Mexican government should work on fixing the conditions that force people to work abroad rather than simply encouraging more remittances, but the amount of good being done by the money being sent home is pretty amazing and should grow as sending money abroad becomes even easier.