A survey just released by the Inter-American Development Bank found that the percentage of immigrants who report sending remittances to their country of origin has dropped to half in early 2008 compared with 73% two years ago, even though migrants continue to flock to the U.S.

In addition, the Central Bank of Mexico reported that remittances from the U.S. dropped 2.9% for the first three months of the year compared with the first quarter of 2007.

The findings by the Inter-American Development Bank marked the first decline in the number of immigrants sending money home since the institution began tracking them eight years ago.

If the trend is borne out the rest of the year, the number of immigrants sending money to Latin America will drop to an estimated 9.4 million in 2008 from 12.6 million in 2006, the bank said. Such a decline would adversely impact millions of families from Mexico to Argentina.