In 2024 remittances from foreign workers in Italy to their countries of origin increased slightly, from 8.24 to 8.29 billion euro (inflation-adjusted amounts). A quarter of this flow of money comes from Rome (one billion) and Milan (911 million). Leading the countries receiving the savings is Bangladesh (1.4 billion), followed by Pakistan (600 million) and Morocco (575 million). These are the results of elaborations provided to Il Sole 24 Ore on Monday by the Leone Moressa Foundation, based on Bank of Italy data referring to 2024. These are the money flows abroad that travel by traceable methods, through banks, post offices, money transfer operators, mobile operators. The Bank of Italy has developed an assessment model to quantify also the “invisible” remittances, i.e. the flow of money that travels by informal means, for example, in the form of cash brought directly by a traveller or a person he trusts, or by other means not detected by official channels. Fondazione Moressa estimates that for Italy this share of informal remittances abroad may be worth between 1.2 and 3.7 billion, which would be added to official remittances.
Support for fragile economies.
Remittances are a primary source of livelihood for the most fragile economies: the United Nations estimates that migrants have sent $5 trillion to low- and middle-income countries in the last decade, surpassing official development assistance and catching up with foreign direct investment. Among the UN’s Millennium Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 is the reduction of transaction costs of migrant remittances to less than 3 percent and the elimination of remittance channels with costs higher than 5 percent. The target has not yet been fully achieved: as of February 2025, the average cost of sending 150 euro from Italy is 3.97% (source: Cespi).
Bangladesh in the lead.
TheBangladesh is the country that collects 17% of remittances from Italy, an increase of 19% compared to 2023. In addition to the increase in the number of Bengali citizens resident in Italy in recent years, the extension from 2018 of the reporting obligation on remittances to new categories of money transfer operators specialising in the transfer of money to Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, the Philippines and Pakistan, may also have had an impact. Transfers detected and transmitted to the Bank of Italy for these areas would therefore have increased.
Considering that in 2024 the foreign resident population in Italy was 5.3 million, the per capita value of migrants’ remittances is 131 euros per month. Looking at the origin, Lombardy is the leading region (1.816 billion, one fifth of total remittances), followed by Lazio (1.271 billion), Emilia-Romagna (826 million) and Veneto (694 million). A quarter of remittances from Italy come from Rome and Milan. Almost 60% of the 570 million remittances to the Philippines come from these two provinces. Of the 501 million leaving for Georgia, on the other hand, almost a quarter comes from Naples and Bari.