Ecuadorians living abroad will send more than $5 billion home in 2023, amounting to 4.4% of GDP

Ecuadorians living and working in the United States, Spain and other countries will send an estimated $5.3 billion home to their families by the end of year, economists predict. The figure is a 19% increase from 2022, when total remittances were $4.5 billion.

More than $5 billion will be sent home to Ecuador from migrants working overseas in 2023.

Ecuador ranks second only to Colombia among South American countries in remittances, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. The bank reports that 68% of remittances come from the United States, with 26% coming from Spain.
“With the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ecuador is seeing a large increase in money sent home by migrants,” the bank says. “Given the country’s economic difficulties, this money is critically important to Ecuadorian families and helps sustain local economies.”

Remittances represent 4.4% of Ecuador’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), second highest in Latin American. Guyana, with a population of only 800,000, ranks first, at 6.9%.

The bank reports that the average income of Ecuadorians working in the U.S. is $3,340 per month, compared to $700 for those working in Ecuador. Migrants in Spain earn considerably less, about $2,400 a month, the bank says.

Ecuadorians in the U.S. and Spain are employed primarily in the construction and services economy, the bank says. “This is different from migrants from Central American countries, were most are employed in the agricultural sector,” it says. “Many Ecuadorians also work in skilled labor trades, such as jewelry making and clothing design, as well as in professional capacities, as university professors computer programmers.”

The bank adds: “The larger number of professional and skilled Ecuadorian migrants reflects the fact that Ecuador ranks first among all Latin American countries in percentage of those attending U.S. universities and trade schools.”

Of the Ecuadorian migrants working in construction trades and the service industry — mostly in food and hospitality trades — the majority do not have legal status in the U.S. The bank says the same is true for migrants in Spain and other European countries.