The World Bank is out with new data on remittances around the world, so as is our normal wont let's check out the state of play in LatAm/Carib and see how much money is being sent back from the richer (note: not "more developed') countries to the region. Here's a chart with the straight money totals and as usual, Mexico leads the field by quite some way in 2010.
But when you factor in population counts for the top ten remittance countries (sourced this morning from the CIA factbook page) you get a better idea of the effect remittances have on a country.
For example, U$317 per person (man/woman/child) sent back to Guatemala is more like U$100 per month for every family there. That, ladies and gentlemen, is an economy-changing amount of money. For more information on this subject, the new World Bank page and literature is highly recommended. I've spent the last hour wandering around the site.