Haiti stat of the day

"In 2008, remittances exceeded half the GDP in ... Haiti"

From Dilip Ratha writing in Finance & Development

Half of all Haitians wanted to permanently leave the country, even before the earthquake

From Gallup

Some Immigration Numbers

Wronging Rights suggest giving Haitians temporary migration rights to the US to escape the chaos. Blattman wonders about the temporary part.

How hard would it be for the US to take in Haiti?

The population of Haiti is almost 10 million people. (Legal) Immigration to the US is about 1 million per year.

How about a 10 year plan to (temporarily) double inflows and make an entire country of poor people's citizens rich?

What about Britain? How about doubling aid to Africa?

Annual British Official Development Assistance to Africa is about £1.5 billion. Currently Britain has 780,000 African immigrants (excluding South Africa), who send home somewhere between £550 and £1400 per year. So "doubling aid" to Africa would require a one-off increase of African migrants to Britain of between 1 million and 2.7 million people, compared to total annual inflows (from all countries) of 600,000.

How about a 5 year plan to (temporarily) double inflows, and permanently double British aid to Africa?

Read these before you donate to the Haiti earthquake relief effort

Texas in Africa

Blood and Milk

Givewell

Tales from the Hood

Aid Watch