In the EU27, money sent by migrants to their country of origin, usually referred to as workers' remittances, amounted to 39.1 billion euro in 2011, up by 2% compared with 2010.

This total includes both intra-EU27 and extra-EU27 flows. Extra-EU27 flows of workers' remittances, which represented nearly three quarters of the total, grew by 3% to reach 28.5 bn, while intra-EU27 flows remained nearly stable at 10.7 bn.

Among the Member States for which data are available, the outflow of workers' remittances in 2011 was highest in France (9.7 bn euro or 25% of total EU27 remittances), Italy (7.4 bn or 19%), Spain (7.3 bn or 19%), Germany (3.0 bn or 8%) and the Netherlands (1.5 bn or 4%). Among these five Member States, the share of extra-EU27 remittances in the total ranged from 64% in France to 83% in Italy.