Kathryn Klaas joined the Inter-American Dialogue in 2020 as an Associate in the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program. She previously worked in Guatemala as Technical Advisor for Ak’Tenamit Association’s monitoring and evaluation team, and later with the Central American Institute for Social Research and Development (INCEDES), where she conducted research on regional migrations and supported development initiatives in high migration areas. Prior to her work in Guatemala, she managed skill-building programs for immigrants as Education Coordinator for El Sol, Jupiter’s Neighborhood Resource Center.
Kathryn received her MA in Demography from El Colegio de México in Mexico City where she focused on international population mobility. She graduated valedictorian and summa cum laude from the Wilkes Honors College at Florida Atlantic University with a BA in Liberal Arts and Sciences and a specialization in Latin American Studies.
On August 27, 2020, the first virtual session of a Housing Laboratory on Migration and Cities in Guatemala (LAV by its Spanish initials) was held. As Guatemala’s National Housing Council (CONAVI) works to update Guatemala’s National Policy on Housing and Human Settlements with strategies to increase access to decent, sustainable housing, this event contributed to discussions regarding the potential that remittances offer for financing the provision of decent and broader urban development.
This report offers an overview of how foreign currency regulations affect money transfers to Venezuela in addition to describing and explaining Venezuelan migrant remitting behavior in six migrant host countries. It also provides an estimate of the aggregate volume of remittances sent to Venezuela.
This report analyzes the role of money transfer intermediaries on migrants sending remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean. We look at the current modernization of the payments industry, specifically as it relates to digital payments, analyzes trends in transfer costs, and discusses the proposed changes to the ‘Remittance Rule,’ including the consequences they may have on remittance senders.