As the coronavirus has destroyed paychecks, migrant workers are sending less money home, meaning it’s near-certain that poverty from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to Eastern Europe and Latin America will increase. The World Bank estimates that the remittances are likely to plunge by one-fifth this year — the most severe contraction in history. That could result in the first global increase in poverty since the Asian financial crisis of 1998. Quotable: “It’s very tough times,” said Flavius Tudor, a worker in England who is being sent money by his 82-year-old mother in Romania instead of the other way around. Over all, the pandemic has damaged the earning power of 164 million migrant workers who support at least 800 million relatives, according to one United Nations estimate.

Source: New York Times July 28, 2020 04:07 UTC