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Figure 3: Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean as % of GDPVariation in remittances’ significance, associated with GDP (grossdomestic product), per capita GDP, and the cost of sending the money.For example, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Jamaica, and theDominican Republic are countries whose remittances received representmore than 10 percent of the total GDP. However, not all of these countrieshave the highest per capita receipt of remittances. Of the thirteen countriesthat receive more than $100 per capita, those with the highest rate areJamaica, Barbados, El Salvador, Belize, the Dominican Republic, andGrenada. These differences are also noted in the averages sent as well asin the relationship between the annual amount sent and per capita incomein these countries. These differences can be observed in the table below.Although the average amount sent is in the $270 per month range, whenthat figure is compared to per capita GDP again results vary. Recipients inHaiti, Honduras, and Bolivia, for example, receive amounts that are nearlythree times per capita GDP. The cost of sending money also varies acrosscountries and may be associated to volume; the lower the volume enteringa country, the more expensive the transfers will be.310Differences in these trends are a function of specific country conditions aswell as the history of migration. For example, although Central America,the Caribbean, and Mexico have a historical relationship of migration to theUnited States, each migratory pattern and its subsequent remittance flowsrespond to the different realities of these countries. Thus, Salvadorans andDominicans may receive similar volumes of remittances, but their migrantpopulations differ in size and timing due to varying dynamics: In the caseof El Salvador, the civil war and its post-conflict process; and in the caseof the Dominican Republic, a longer historical tradition beginning with theexile of communities escaping the Trujillo dictatorship.