"The total funds transferred by migrants resident in the EU to their home countries have risen to 26 million euros". It was found out by a survey by Eurostat about "the immigrants’ remittances" for 2006. Compared with 2005, such figure "has grown by nearly three billion euros". The Statistics Office of the EU Commission managed for the first time to conduct a survey of the official transfers (figures are provided by the member states through the balance of payments), which does not include "informal or illegal transfers". "Flows within the EU amount to 7 billion euros, while outside the EU they reach 19 billion euros". "Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and France are the main countries of origin of such funds". Conversely, about 9 billion euros’ worth of transfers arrived in the EU. In addition, the survey shows the main "corridors" for such transfers, which match the migrants’ countries of origin. First of the list are the following corridors: Germany to Turkey, France to Morocco, France to Portugal, Spain to Morocco, Spain to Colombia, Germany to Poland, Spain to Ecuador, France to Algeria, Italy to Albania. The world’s main regions of destination of such remittances are non-EU Europe, Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
