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The money that immigrant workers send home — known as remittances — plays a large role in the economies of developing nations, with more than $240 billion sent and received in 2007. But the economic downturn has some worried that flow could dry up; according to a recent poll, fewer Latin American immigrants working in the U.S. are sending money home. The map below shows the inflow and outflow of remittances worldwide, as a percentage of gross domestic product.

TIME Graphic by Kate Pickert and Feilding Cage
Credit: World Bank, 2006