Why Migrant Smuggling Pays

Drawing on empirical research in Afghanistan and Pakistan, this article ‘follows the money’ for 50 migrants smuggled to the UK, to cast light on the financing of smuggling. The means used to raise the money to pay smugglers ranged from drawing on savings to selling property, land and jewellery. Payments were made to a third‐party, who did not release the payment to the smuggler until migrants had arrived in their destination ‐ effectively a ‘money‐back guarantee’ on smuggling. Smugglers disbursed about half of their fee to forgers, procurers of passports, airport officials and other intermediaries required to facilitate smuggling. Most migrants quickly found work in their destination and started remitting soon after their arrival. On average remittances were at a sufficient level to repay the initial outlay on smugglers’ fees after two years, and thereafter remittances on average more than doubled household incomes at home. In this case study, smuggling therefore paid for the range of intermediaries involved in facilitating it, for migrants themselves, and for migrants’ households at home.     

Labor Migration,Remittances and Household Income: A Comparison between Filipino and Filipina Overseas Workers1

The major purpose of the research is to examine gender differences in patterns of labor market activity, economic behavior and economic outcomes among labor migrants. While focusing on Filipina and Filipino overseas workers, the article addresses the following questions: whether and to what extent earnings and remittances of overseas workers differ by gender; and whether and to what extent the gender of overseas workers differentially affects household income in the Philippines. Data for the analysis were obtained from the Survey of Households and Children of Overseas Workers (a representative sample of households drawn in 1999–2000 from four major “labor sending” areas in the Philippines). The analysis focuses on 1,128 households with overseas workers. The findings reveal that men and women are likely to take different jobs and to migrate to different destinations. The analysis also reveals that many more women were unemployed prior to migration and that the earnings of women are, on average, lower than those of men, even after controlling for variations in occupational distributions, country of destination, and sociodemographic attributes. Contrary to popular belief, men send more money back home than do women, even when taking into consideration earnings differentials between the genders. Further analysis demonstrates that income of households with men working overseas is significantly higher than income of households with women working overseas and that this difference can be fully attributed to the earnings disparities and to differences in amount of remittances sent home by overseas workers. The results suggest that gender inequal‐     

Beyond control? The mechanics and dynamics of ‘informal’ remittances between Europe and Africa

Abstract Policy making usually assumes that the best way to harness migrant remittances for development is by shifting them into the regulated money transfer sector. However, much research evidence concludes that alternative methods are often cheaper and more reliable, accessible and convenient. In this article, we explore this tension between policy objectives and evidence. Based on a review of remittance mechanisms in seven sub‐Saharan African countries, we question the validity of the distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ remittances. We conclude that the formalization of remittance systems should not be approached as a regulatory task carried out from the top down, but as a bottom‐up evolutionary and organic process that should be encouraged. We suggest that the current regulatory thrust in this area is likely to be counterproductive, since it risks undermining the many vibrant institutions emerging through the movement of migrants and their money, together with their potential to enhance much needed economic and social development.     

Inducing Development: Social Remittances and the Expansion of Oil Palm

This paper investigates the relationship between social remittances and land‐use change in the context of South–South migration. Focusing on the cyclical movement of Filipino oil palm workers between the Philippine province of Palawan and the Malaysian State of Sabah, we show how migrants transmit social remittances, such as ideas of prosperity associated with oil palm development and knowledge of production practices and land impacts of oil palm plantations. These social remittances affect farmers’ decisions to engage in oil palm development within the migrants’ home province, possibly transforming subsistence agricultural systems into large‐scale, monocrop plantations. We argue that such land development outcomes are an understudied aspect of how migration affects developing countries, especially in the context of South–South migration. Research findings also suggest how migrants’ social remittances are transmitted, diffused, and utilized at broader social and political units, beyond return migrants’ households and immediate communities in Palawan. Decision outcomes, however, are variable, with households and communities either engaging in or opposing oil palm development, depending on how social remittances are interpreted.     

Workers’ Remittances to India: An Examination of Transfer Cost and Efficiency

Regarding the time efficiency of remittance transfer channels to India, the evidence suggests that traditional banking instruments are relatively inefficient as compared to the new information technology‐enabled products. Transfer arrangement of the Indian banks with overseas exchange houses has reduced the settlement cycle and the cost. Both the banks and money transfer operators (MTOs) are able to keep the transaction cycle low through the use of information technology‐enabled formats. Given that the average cost curve of the banks is located to the right of the average cost curve of the MTOs, greater potential exists for the improvement in overall efficiency of the two entities, particularly through the sharing of messaging and the access and disbursement networks to reduce the overhead cost. The estimates of error correction model reveal that the transaction fee and payment infrastructure are significant determinants of remittance flows, underscoring the scope of policy measures in influencing remittance inflows. The estimates indicate that over the medium to long‐term horizon, transaction cost emerges as the most dominant variable explaining the variation in remittances. The payments infrastructure also explains about 10 per cent variation in remittances over the medium‐term. The impulse response analysis further reveals that the favourable shocks to transaction fees and the payments infrastructure cause steady improvement in remittance inflows over the medium‐term horizon, thus underlining the importance of cost and efficiency in affecting the workers’ remittances.     

The daughter‐in‐law questions remittances: changes in the gender of remittances among Indian migrants to Australia

In this article, I present a cross‐generational analysis of the gendered meanings and politics surrounding monetary remittances. Indian female migrants to Australia, who contribute significantly to household incomes, have recently started to question the sources and directions of remittances. This happens when the woman's earnings are sent, without consultation, to the husband's parents for luxuries, while the family in Australia is struggling. Women in paid work also want to send their earnings to their own parents, particularly if there is financial need. Remittances have become a testing ground for the traditional belief that the husband and his family own the money in the patrilineal marital household. It is possible to interpret male control of remittances without consultation as a form of financial abuse of the wife in the sending household. The article draws on two qualitative studies on five decades of Indian migration to Australia covering 203 people from 112 families.     

Remittances and the Maintenance of Dual Social Worlds: The Transnational Working Lives of Migrants in Greater London

Most research on remittances focuses on economic motivations, with little emphasis on the social contexts in which the remittance economy operates. Through an analysis of in‐depth interviews with migrant workers in a London hotel and hospital, we examine how migrants’ familial and social relationships in both sending and receiving countries inform the decision to send remittances. We suggest that remittances are a mechanism through which migrants are able to fulfil multiple obligations to families and places of origin, while also enhancing their own economic status and future. First, satisfying the cultural expectation of sending remittances helps migrants maintain their social worlds at “home”. Second, we observed that both positive and negative changes in power and resources influence the decision to send remittances by motivating migrants to invest in their social position in either their home or receiving country. In sum, we argue that the migrants’ social experience in the United Kingdom might be just as predictive of remittance behaviour as their economic and social status in the country of origin. We, therefore, call for a need to move beyond the often one‐sided concern with development by concentrating on the overlapping social worlds of migrants.     

Immigrant Remittances,Stability of Employment and Relative Deprivation

This paper examines the factors affecting immigrant remittances on the basis of the experience of immigrants to Greece. In addition to factors commonly used in similar analyses, we examine two new ones: stability of employment and relative deprivation. Our results show that the stability of employment has no significant effect on the decision to remit, while relative deprivation does. Immigrants from less relatively deprived families are more likely to send money back home. As for their effects on the size of remittances, our results show that the relative deprivation variable is insignificant, while those in steady jobs remit less money than those employed in unsteady jobs. The latter finding suggests that fluctuations in migrant employment and migrant income are borne by migrants themselves, whose goal appears to be to secure a steady flow of remittances to country of origin. This type of remittance behaviour has implications for the interpretation of volatility in remittance flows to migrant–sending countries. Specifically, variation in flows may be attributable to changes in the numbers of migrants and not only to changes in the economic and employment conditions in destination countries.     

Between two families: the social meaning of remittances for Vietnamese marriage migrants in Singapore

Scholars who have applied transnational perspectives to studies of migration and remittances have called for a move beyond the developmentalist approach to accommodate an expanded understanding of the social meanings of remittances. Researchers working in Asia have begun to view the remittances of money, gifts and services that labour migrants send to their families as transnational ‘acts of recognition’, as an enactment of gendered roles and identities, and as a component of the social practices that create the ties that bind migrants to their ‘home’ countries. In this article, we depart from the more common focus on remittance behaviour among labour migrants and turn instead to examine how, as marriage migrants, Vietnamese women generate and confer meaning on the remittances they send. First, from the women's viewpoint, we discuss the extent to which expectations vested in being able to generate remittances for the natal family by marrying a Singaporean man not only translate into motivation for marriage migration but also shape the parameters of the marriage. Second, we show how sending remittances are significant to the women as ‘acts of recognition’ in the construction of gendered identities as filial daughters, and, through the ‘connecting’ and ‘disconnecting’ power of remittances, in the reimagining of the transnational family. Third, we discuss the strategies that women devise in negotiating between the conflicting demands and expectations of their natal and marital families and in securing their ‘place’ between two families. We base our findings on an analysis of interviews and ethnographic work with Vietnamese women and their Singaporean husbands through commercial matchmaking agencies.     

The resilience of migrant money: how gender,generation and class shape family remittances in Peruvian migration

Scholars and policy makers have argued that because altruism drives remittance sending, migrant money is more resilient to uncertainty than other capital flows. In this article, I question this assumption through ethnographic examination of remittance sending by Peruvian migrant families. When in their lives do Peruvian migrants start to remit? Who are the recipients? What is the purpose of their remittances? How long do they last and why do they stop? I argue that, to answer these questions, we need to investigate how migrants make remittance commitments to different household members, how these attribute value to the remittances and how this value becomes the object of negotiation and contestation. The findings indicate that remittances reinforce existing relations of gender, generation and class in Peruvian society and suggest that while short‐lived remittances are based on contractual commitments and driven by altruism, long‐term remittances are based on emotional commitments and driven by both non‐utilitarian and utilitarian motives.     

Cherishing the Goose with the Golden Eggs: Trends in Migrant Remittances from Europe to Morocco 1970–20041

In contrast to earlier predictions, migrant remittances from Europe to Morocco have shown an increasing trend over the past decades. Remittances constitute a vital and relatively stable source of foreign capital. The so‐called “euro effect” and concomitant money laundering can only explain part of the recent, extreme surge in remittances. The structural solidity of remittances is explained by the unforeseen persistence of migration to northwestern Europe; new labor migration toward southern Europe; and the durability of transnational and transgenerational links between migrants and stay‐behinds. The stable economic‐political environment and new “enlightened” policies toward migrants explain why Morocco has been relatively successful in channeling remittances through official channels.     

Transnational Twist: Pecuniary Remittances and the Socioeconomic Integration of Authorized and Unauthorized Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles County1

Annual U.S.‐Mexico pecuniary remittances are estimated to have more than doubled recently to at least $10 billion ‐ augmenting interest among policymakers, financial institutions, and transnational migrant communities concerning how relatively poor expatriate Mexicans sustain such large transfers and the impact on immigrant integration in the United States. We employ the 2001 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC‐MIRSS) to investigate how individual characteristics and social capital traditionally associated with integration, neighborhood context, and various investments in the United States influenced remitting in 2000. Remitting is estimated to have been inversely related to conventional integration metrics and influenced by community context in both sending and receiving areas. Contrary to straight‐line assimilation theories and more consistent with a transnational or nonlinear perspective, however, remittances are also estimated to have been positively related to immigrant homeownership in Los Angeles County and negatively associated with having had public health insurance such as Medicaid.     

Effects of Remittance Behavior on the Lives of Recent Immigrants to Canada from the Philippines: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study

Remittances, money sent by immigrants to family members in their countries of origin, were studied. Research goals were to (1) describe remittance behavior over time and (2) understand effects of sending remittances on the lives of remitters living in Canada. Data were obtained from three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (2000–2004) for a national sample of Canadian Filipino immigrants. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess the effects of remittances on health, housing and living conditions of the study population. Results showed that over time respondents’ own health was not affected by remitting. In contrast housing and living conditions were affected: Remitters were less likely to own their homes and more likely to rent than non-remitters when the effects of age, sex, family income and immigration class were controlled. The researchers make suggestions for practice and future research dealing with housing and living conditions of recent immigrants to Canada.     

“Here One Moment… and Gone the Next?” Remittance as a Social Visibility Tool

Human labor is as much an export as any good. Remittances are a critical source of income for left‐behind families and communities. Transnational labor migrants often describe themselves as ‘invisible’: neither present in the lives of left‐behind families nor members of the receiving community. Building on social remittances literature, we argue that remittances serve as a remedy for this ‘invisibility.’ Through analysis of interviews with 26 temporary labor migrants from 11 countries resident in Israel, we find remittances can render migrants visible to transnational families and provide identity benefits to labor migrants. If visibility benefits decline because of familial role changes, reduced value as a remitter, cost exceeding benefits or because contracting partners change, remittance practices will change. Contrary to previous literature, our findings show that remittances decisions are dynamic, revealing why remittances practices change and even cease. Findings have implications for understanding the multibillion‐dollar remittances industry and immigrant incorporation.     

A Model of Migrants' Remittances with Human Capital Investment and Intrafimilial Transfers1

This study analyzes data on migrants' remittances using a two‐period theory of intergenerational transfers based on an informal, intrafamilial loan arrangement using “weak altruism,” a behavior between “strong altruism” and pure self‐interest. The model provides an integrated theory of migrants' remittances, human capital investment decisions, and intrafamilial transfers applicable to low‐income countries with no official pension schemes and imperfect capital markets. Propositions, derived from the theory, are tested, re‐analyzing original survey data on remittances of Pacific island migrants in Sydney. When weak altruism and strong altruism yield opposite predictions, the econometric results tend to confirm the former hypothesis and invalidate the latter.     

How Do Workers’ Remittances Respond to Lending Rates?

The literature on migrants’ motivation to remit ranges from self‐interest to altruism where studies analyse the impact from home country interest rates or interest differentials between home and host countries. We reinterpret the interest rate elasticity of remittances as a form of debt‐repayment responsiveness rather than based on opportunistic motivation. Modelling altruistic transfer and debt‐repayment, we find that, for a panel of countries, the long‐run responsiveness of remittances to changes in real lending rates is negative. This suggests that an expansionary (contractionary) monetary policy is most likely to lead to an increase (reduction) in remittances in the long‐run. In contrast to this, the short‐run impact of interest rate changes on remittances is positive.     

The media construction of remittances and transnational social ties: migrant–non-migrant relationships in the Romanian press

The study explores through a ‘transnational lens’ the Romanian media construction of remitting practices and identities within a wider debate on circular migration. It uses a broad definition of remittances (financial, sociocultural and political) and is concerned with the role of the Romanian press in articulating migrant–non-migrant relationships and laying the ground for informed policy debates. The methodology consists of qualitative corpus analysis and discourse analysis applied to a corpus of 221 news articles. The main findings indicate an overall positive evaluation of remittances (with the main exception of family separation), which endows migrants with social recognition as development agents and is used to justify various policy initiatives, but at the same time disempowers them through instrumentalisation. Even though limited in scope, grassroots migrant–non-migrant interaction, combined with a critical journalistic stance in editorials, opens up an avenue towards negotiation and joint transnational actions.     

Migrants' capacity as actors of development: do skills matter for economic and social remittances?

Highly skilled migrants are presumably in a better position than less skilled ones to contribute to development in their countries of origin, largely by way of economic and social remittances. In this article, we use unique data on first‐generation migrants in the Netherlands to test how economic and social remittances differ by skill level. We find that the highly skilled are more likely to remit, to remit larger amounts and to give advice on education, jobs and health matters. Thus, we identify the highly skilled as having a greater capacity to affect development than have migrants of other skill levels. However, nuances exist with respect to this overall result. We illustrate that the low and medium skilled also show some capacity to affect economic development and that a medium skill level is sufficient to be in a position to transfer significantly more knowledge and skills.     

Beyond Family Remittances: Assessing the Prospects of Alternative Approaches to “Remittances for Development” in Africa

This article examines the remittance patterns of Cameroonians residing in Aarhus, Denmark and discusses the findings in relation to those from earlier studies on migrants’ remittances. Based on analyses of the inclination of these Cameroonians to support development projects in Cameroon, it is argued that a strengthened partnership between local non‐state actors in Cameroon and the Cameroonian diaspora will significantly improve the role remittances can play in the country’s development. The article also highlights the framework, benefits and challenges of such potential partnership and suggests ways in which remittances from the Cameroonian diaspora in particular and African migrants in general, could be effectively channelled beyond migrants’ families to further the continent’s development drive.     

The dynamics of remittance behaviour among Senegalese men and women in Spain

This article explores the conditions under which Senegalese immigrants in Spain send remittances home, beginning with the premise that remittances are intertwined with migration histories and migrants’ incorporation into host societies. Given the strong gender norms in Senegal, we perform separate analyses for men and women. We use a longitudinal approach to analyse how remittance behaviour is affected by immigrants’ characteristics, their economic integration, and their ties to origin and destination. Our data come from the MAFE and MESE surveys, which were implemented in 2008 and 2011, respectively. The results indicate that remitters constitute a clear majority among Senegalese immigrants in Spain. The Kaplan–Meier analysis shows that they rarely stop remitting once they start doing so, and the multivariate analysis reveals a strong positive association between employment and remittance sending. Although most coefficients in the full model are similar for men and women, some important differences emerge as well.