Research published in 2019 shed light on how the billions of dollars in remittances sent to Haiti each year were actually being used by the families who received them, challenging both optimistic narratives that portrayed remittances as a development solution and pessimistic ones that depicted the money as being wasted on consumption.
The research found that remittance-receiving households in Haiti spent a significant portion of incoming funds on basic necessities — food, medicine, school fees — that their household income alone could not cover. This “survival spending” increased markedly during the economic crisis of 2019, as deteriorating local economic conditions made families more dependent on diaspora transfers.
But remittances also financed productive investments: small businesses, home construction, agricultural inputs, and education beyond the basic level. The picture that emerged was of a diverse and pragmatic use of remittance funds tailored to the specific circumstances and needs of each household, rather than the stereotyped image of money spent on parties and imports.
Development economists argued that the findings supported calls for policies that reduced the cost of sending remittances to Haiti — often among the highest in the world for a small country — and created financial products that could channel remittance flows toward productive investment while meeting immediate needs. Every dollar saved in transfer fees was a dollar more for Haitian families.