Although the term has been used to refer to a variety of transactions, "remittances" generally refers to money and goods sent from foreign-born individuals in a country to others abroad. BEA's estimate of such remittances, called "personal transfers," includes money and goods sent from the foreign-born population resident in the United States to others abroad. In 2007, U.S. personal transfers were $36 billion.
Other organizations define remittances more broadly. For example, an estimate of remittances published by the World Bank includes not only personal transfers but also earnings of temporary workers and the accumulated wealth of foreign-born individuals who return to their country of origin. Under this definition, the World Bank estimates that remittances from the United States were $46 billion in 2007.
Other definitions of remittances may also include items such as the income earned by temporary foreign workers (sometimes net of their taxes and expenditures in the country where they are employed); funds sent back home for the migrant's own personal savings; and transfers sent through U.S. nonprofit institutions rather than directly to households abroad.
Recent BEA estimates of personal transfers are available at:
http://www.bea.gov/international/supplemental_statistics.htm
For a detailed discussion of BEA's methodology for estimating personal transfers, please see:
Bach, Christopher. "Annual Revision of the U.S. International Accounts, 1991-2004." Survey of Current Business Vol. 85 No.7 (July 2005) pg 64-66.
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