United States | Intern, Migration, Remittances, and Development Program
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Asha Richards joined the Inter-American Dialogue in May 2022 as an intern for the Migration, Remittances, and Development program. Currently, she is pursuing her Master’s degree at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in the Development Practice program with a prospective concentration in International Organizations & United Nations Studies and regional specialization in Latin America. As the Northeast USA Regional Lead of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Youth Council (GJDYC) and a daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Asha is very invested in migration and ways it can be leveraged to boost development in Jamaica and the Caribbean as a whole. Prior to her joining the IAD, she worked with the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership, a US Department of State initiative to support African partner nations in obtaining the capacity to independently rapidly deploy United Nations Level 2 Hospitals in times of global crisis. Asha graduated in 2021 from Virginia Wesleyan University with a BA in Political Science and International Studies.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, remittances have become a much more important source of income for many people in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is projected that the growth rate will reach 14 percent in 2022 to nearly US$150 billion, equivalent to 5 percent of the gross domestic product in Latin American and the Caribbean countries…
