The Influence Of Religion On Remittances Sent To Relatives And Friends Back Home

Abstract

Using The Pilot for the New Immigrant Survey (NIS-P), a nationally representative sample of new legal immigrants to the United States, this paper examines how religiosity influences immigrants’ remitting behavior. Our analysis addresses two related questions. First, do immigrants from different religious affiliations differ in their remitting behavior? Second, does regular religious service attendance influence their remitting behavior? Our results from logistic regression analyses indicate that immigrants from different religious affiliations do differ in their remitting behavior. Catholics are more likely to remit than individuals with no religion. In contrast, Protestants and individuals from other religion are more likely to remit than Catholics. Regular religious service attendance is positively related to remitting behavior, however, this correlation is not statistically significant.