In a striking counter-intuitive development, remittance flows from the Haitian diaspora to Haiti surged in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s severe economic impact on diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, and France. As economic conditions in Haiti deteriorated and families faced acute need, diaspora members who had themselves lost income or faced reduced hours dug deep to support relatives at home.
The surge in remittances reflected several dynamics: the acute desperation of families in Haiti who were facing a public health emergency combined with economic collapse; the strong cultural obligation felt by Haitian diaspora members to support their families regardless of their own circumstances; and the particular vulnerability of Haitian families who had fewer alternative income sources than in more economically diversified countries.
Digital remittance services, which had been growing in the Haitian corridor for years, saw particularly strong uptake as the pandemic restricted mobility and made physical cash transfer more difficult. The convenience and lower cost of digital transfers compared to traditional wire services had already been making inroads, and the pandemic accelerated this shift.
Economists studying remittance flows to Haiti noted that the pandemic surge demonstrated both the resilience of the diaspora-homeland bond and the profound dependency that this relationship reflected. Haiti’s dependence on remittances — which represented approximately 30 percent of GDP — was a measure of how profoundly the domestic economy had failed to create the jobs and incomes that would allow families to be self-sufficient.