As for this not being the right way to develop a country, well, you may have a point there...but it doesn't necessarily mean so.
For instance, what if private enterprise is not curtailed in the receiving country, and this money feeds the spurting of start-up firms? For eg., like in India.
That
could be helpful (using remittances as start-up capital), but this having people emigrate from their country to work in another is often bad for countries such as the Philippines (though probably not so much so for countries such as France or India--or even the PRC--where the remittances-people probably emigrate with their families). For Mexican and Filipinos, one parent (or even two) go off to some foreign country while the rest of the family stays in their native country. This obviously is very bad for family relations. Also, countries should be more self-reliant on their own abilities (their own manufacturing and services) rather than money being wired or sent from abroad.
India used to go to the extreme on self-reliance, and it was after it started freeing up its market that the economy started to grow a lot.
So, to basically sum up the opinion, remittances can be helpful, but those countries should not be reliant on them.