Every month, in kitchens in Brampton and Surrey, in break rooms in Winnipeg and Calgary, someone opens an app and sends a piece of their paycheque to the other side of the world. This is the quiet economy behind Canada’s diversity — the remittances that turn a shift in Scarborough into school fees in Cebu, a nursing salary in Alberta into a parent’s medicine in Lagos, a warehouse wage in Ontario into a sibling’s tuition in Punjab. This is an explainer about who sends, why, and what it costs them.

Who sends

Canada’s outbound money is unusually concentrated. Unlike some countries where remittances spread thinly across dozens of small communities, Canada’s flows are dominated by a handful of large, established diasporas:

• Indo-Canadians — one of the largest Indian diasporas outside India, heavily Punjabi and Gujarati, clustered around the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver. The Canada–India lane is estimated at ~$3.0B a year.
• Filipino-Canadians — a community built substantially through caregiver and skilled-worker immigration, with strong roots in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. The Canada–Philippines lane is also estimated at ~$3.0B a year.
• Nigerian-Canadians — a fast-growing community driven by student and skilled-worker arrivals into Toronto, Calgary and the Prairies. The Canada–Nigeria lane is smaller, ~$1.0B a year, but expanding quickly.

Together these three corridors move an estimated $7B+ a year out of Canada (World Bank / KNOMAD, 2024 estimate) — part of the roughly $685B that reaches low- and middle-income countries globally each year.

Why they send

The reasons are as ordinary and as serious as family gets. Remittances pay for the things that cannot wait: monthly household costs, a parent’s medical bill, a younger sibling’s school fees, a roof repair before the rains, capital for a small shop back home. For many households in India, the Philippines and Nigeria, money from a relative abroad is not a bonus — it is a line in the budget they plan around.

There is a cultural texture to it, too. In Filipino families, the padala — the parcel or money sent home — is close to a monthly institution, part of the balikbayan tradition of staying woven into a family you had to leave. In Punjabi and Gujarati families, supporting parents and extended family across the ocean is simply what you do. The apps are new; the obligation is old.

What it costs them

Here is where the story turns practical, and a little unfair. The people sending are often those who can least afford to lose a slice of it — caregivers, drivers, warehouse and healthcare workers sending a fixed amount out of a modest wage. And they lose more than they think.

The global average cost to send $200 across borders is about 6.36% (World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide). Canada’s big lanes do better — roughly 3.0% to India, 3.5% to the Philippines, 4.0% to Nigeria — but “better than the average” still adds up. Two costs stack:

• The visible fee, which competition has pushed down.
• The exchange-rate margin, the quiet gap between the rate you get and the real one — which is where a “no-fee” promotion often earns its keep.

Across a year of monthly sends, the difference between a fair rate and a padded one can be more than a whole month’s remittance — money that was meant for a family and stayed with an intermediary instead. That is the case we make, corridor by corridor, in the cheapest way to send money from Canada.

What is changing

Two shifts are quietly rewriting this. First, the last mile got instant: UPI in India, GCash and Maya in the Philippines, instant bank payouts in Nigeria mean money can reach a phone or account in seconds once it arrives in-country. Second, the cross-border leg is catching up. For decades the slow, expensive part was getting value across the border through the correspondent-banking chain (see why Canada transfers are slow). Stablecoin-settled rails now move that value as digital dollars in under a second, at any hour, then pay out in local currency.

Movement is the settlement and yield layer built for exactly these emerging-market corridors — 278-millisecond block time, settlement in under one second, over licensed rails in Canada, the US and the EU. The family on the receiving end never has to know it exists or hold anything unfamiliar; they get rupees, pesos or naira in the account they always use. What changes is that more of the money, faster, actually arrives. We explain that method plainly in send money from Canada with stablecoins.

That is the whole point of this site: the people doing this work deserve rails that lose them less.

Where to go next

• Start at the hub: Send money from Canada — every diaspora corridor ranked.
• By destination: Canada to India, Canada to the Philippines, Canada to Nigeria.
• Know your protections: Canada’s remittance rules and FINTRAC.

Frequently asked questions

How much money does Canada’s diaspora send home? Canada’s three largest diaspora corridors — India, the Philippines and Nigeria — together move an estimated $7B+ a year, with India and the Philippines each around $3.0B and Nigeria around $1.0B (World Bank / KNOMAD estimates).

Why do immigrants in Canada send money home? Mostly to cover essentials for family abroad — household costs, medical bills, school fees, and support for parents and extended family. For many receiving households it is a planned part of the monthly budget, not extra.

What does it cost to send money home from Canada? Typically around 3.0% to India, 3.5% to the Philippines and 4.0% to Nigeria all-in (World Bank / KNOMAD estimates) — below the 6.36% global average, but with real money still lost to exchange-rate margins on top of visible fees.

How can diaspora senders lose less to fees? Compare the amount that actually lands in the destination currency, favour specialist apps over bank wires, and watch the exchange-rate margin, not just the headline fee. Faster stablecoin-settled rails through licensed providers can lower the cost further.

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By Marc Tremblay. Last reviewed 2026-07-24. Corridor figures are World Bank / KNOMAD estimates. General information, not financial advice.