For decades, remittances—money sent home by migrants—have been hailed as a lifeline for families and communities in times of crisis. Institutions like the World Bank have championed remittances as a hidden force in economic growth and crisis recovery. They’ve framed them as “dollars wrapped with love,” a private solution to public problems, allowing governments to shrink social safety nets and scale back humanitarian aid. Or end it all together as we are seeing through President Trump’s USAID shutdown, forcing migrants to carry the burden of international development. This event takes a hard look at the myth of remittance-driven resilience. What happens when governments rely on their diaspora to fund disaster recovery? Why are international donors, including USAID, scaling back traditional aid while promoting financial products to “unlock” more remittance flows? And as climate disasters intensify, are we witnessing the privatization of humanitarianism—where survival depends on whether you have family abroad? Dr. Yvonne Su, Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies and Assistant Professor at York University, explores these questions in her book project, “The Myth of Remittances,” which takes a unique focus on the human and household-level experiences of remittances during crisis recovery, offering a critical counter-narrative to the global optimism surrounding remittances.