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.     

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.     

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.     

Residential Remittances and Food Security in the Upper West Region of Ghana

In recent years, out migration from the Upper West Region to the southern belt of Ghana for farming has become commonplace. The natural question that has arisen is: what is the potential impact of remittances from this migration pattern on food security in the region? Using multivariate ordered logistic regression this study assesses the linkage between remittances and household food security (derived using the HFIAS) among urban and rural households (n=1,438) in the region. The findings show that urban remittance‐receiving households and rural remittance and non‐remittance receiving households were more likely (OR=2.44, p<0.05; OR=2.46, p<0.001; and OR=1.49, p<0.1, respectively) to report being more severely food‐insecure than urban non‐remittance receiving households. The findings demonstrate that household strategies such as migration and remittances on their own are not sufficient to ameliorate the precarious food insecurity situation of the region. The study calls for development of alternative livelihoods in the region.     

Where do Remittances Go in Household Consumption? Empirical Evidence from Sri Lanka-Wide Micro-data

Private internal and international remittances are a major source of household money in Sri Lanka, yet their impact on household welfare has long been a research gap. Based on the Migration and Development Theory, this article examines how private remittances affect household expenditure behaviour, using nationally representative microdata and applying quasi-experimental methods. Private remittances have significantly increased household per-capita expenditure and initiated positive behavioural changes via increased allocations for basic needs, human and physical capital investment. Compared with internal remittances, the impact of international remittance shows a strong potential for reducing poverty incidence and improving people's well-being: households in richer/richest expenditure quartiles and urban households invest in education, which supports the country's long-standing record of education. Rural households demonstrate favourable changes in spending behaviour with receiving private remittances. From a public policy standpoint, government favours migration so that remittances are more likely to flow. A proper remittance-transfer mechanism to encourage smooth remittance is thus required.     

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.     

Overseas workers' remittances in Asian development

In recent years, overseas workers from Asia have been sending remittances of about $8 billion annually to their home countries. These remittances are an important source of precious foreign exchange for the major labor-exporting countries. The overall development impact of remittances, however, has not been well established. Remittances are spent primarily on day-to-day consumption expenditures, housing, land purchase, and debt repayment. Although only a small proportion of remittances are directed into productive investments, this does not warrant the conclusion that the developmental value of remittances is negligible. In fact, remittances spent on domestic goods and services Asia provide an important stimulus to indigenous industries and to the economies of the labor supplying countries. It is these broader macroeconomic benefits of remittances which seem to have been largely ignored in the literature, and this perhaps explains the pessimistic view of the developmental value of remittances. Reservations concerning the effects of remittance on the sending countries include the fears that 1) expenditure patterns of remittance receiving households may create a demonstration effect whereby nonmigrant households may increase consumption, 2) remittance inflow will increase income and wealth inequalities, 3) remittance expenditures may result in inflation, 4) remittances may produce only short-term fluctuations in long-term economic development, and 5) remittances may adversely affect agricultural development.     

Remittances,Business Cycles and Poverty: The Recent Turkish Experience

We investigate whether remittances sent to Turkey by Turkish workers living in Germany are countercyclical or procyclical with Turkish and German national outputs and discuss possible reasons underlying the resulting patterns and their implications. We also take up a previously unexplored issue and discuss poverty alleviation potential of remittances at a macroeconomic level by examining the statistical properties of any co‐movements between remittances cycles and cycles in consumption spending on food and durable goods in Turkey. Our results reveal that real remittance flows from Germany to Turkey move procyclically with the real output in Turkey, and are primarily driven by (largely independent of) the developments in the Turkish economy (German economy). We also find that remittances cycles remain procyclical to the consumption cycles throughout our sample period. This direct co‐movement between the two cycles becomes synchronous, however, only after a phase shift occurring around 1992, pointing to the increasing role of the level of economic activity in Turkey as the leading determinant of remittance receipts from Germany and the declining strength of consumption smoothing motive over time. Our results all together point out a low potential for remittances sent from Germany to reduce poverty in Turkey, at least as far as the past fifteen years are concerned.     

Migrant remittances and development

Income remittances from migrant workers to countries of origin are central to the links between migration and development. Multiple, complex, and diverse forces, however, affect the flow of remittances. Factors may include the number and characteristics of workers abroad; levels and types of economic activity in sending and host countries; differential wage, exchange, and interest rates; political risk; and the facility for transferring funds. These factors then shape personal decisions made by migrants and their families regarding remittances, after which any longer-range development consequences of remittances may result. Debate rages over the effects of remittances on development. This paper therefore reviews papers on the measurement of remittances and gives recent findings on the volume and direction of flows. It continues by considering evidence on the uses of remittances and their consequences for development, and closes with a discussion of policy options for increasing and channeling remittance flows.     

Remittances in Ghana: Origin, Destination and Issues of Measurement

Few studies on remittances have focused on sub-Saharan Africa. This paper analyses a nationwide survey of 5,998 households to determine the characteristics of both internal and overseas remittances in Ghana. Particular attention is paid to the poverty-alleviation potential of remittances. Furthermore, this study uses a smaller scale pilot project with a matched sample of senders and receivers of remittances to identify some problems with using household-level surveys to assess the volume and impact of overseas remittances, and offers some suggestions as to how to handle these problems. The paper estimates that foreign remittances may be three times as large as Bank of Ghana estimates, bringing Ghana on par with large remittance receiving countries such as the Philippines and Mexico. The paper concludes that while foreign remittances are larger in value, locally sent remittances reach poorer segments of the population. Both foreign and local remittances are unevenly geographically distributed, being received more in the centre and southern regions than in northern Ghana where the poorest regions are. The paper argues a need to study multiplier effects of foreign remittances, as these can be large and eventually accrue to rural populations.     

New evidence on the role of remittances on healthcare expenditures by Mexican households

Using Mexico’s 2002 wave of the Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares (ENIGH), we find that international remittances raise health care expenditures. Approximately 6 pesos of every 100 peso increment in remittance income are spent on health. The sensitivity of health care expenditures to variations in the level of international remittances is almost three times greater than their sensitivity to changes in other sources of household income. Furthermore, health care expenditures are less responsive to remittance income among lower-income households. Since the lower responsiveness may be partially due to participation of lower-income households in public programs like PROGRESA (now called Oportunidades), we also analyze the impact of remittances by health care coverage. As expected, we find that households with some kind of health care coverage—either through their jobs or via participation in PROGRESA—spend less of remittance income increments on health care than households lacking any health care coverage. Hence, remittances may help equalize health care expenditures across households with and without health care coverage.     

Migration, remittances and rural development: findings of a case study in the Indian Punjab

Rural household survey data in the Ludhiana district of the Indian Punjab was used to study the nature and role of remittances in rural development. Of the 1646 outmigrants from the area since 1961, the 949 women who migrated for marriage and children under 12 years old were excluded from the study. Nearly all husbands who outmigrated had sent remittances. Parents and grandparents were 2nd and 3rd most likely to remit, but their numbers were small. Education did not correlate with remittance. Distance and time since emigration did not affect remittance. The frequency and the size of remittances are discussed. Remittances to outmigrants were insignificant. The remittances from outmigrants seem to raise the incomes and the levels of living of rural households. The remittances serve the purpose of redistributing income from urban to rural areas. Remittances also widened the gap between rich and poor in the rural areas because the better-off groups were more likely to receive remittances than the poorer groups. Most of the money sent from outmigrants was spent on consumable goods, food and clothing. Only a small proportion was spent on productive investment. This was usually done by farming families who invested in land or farm necessities. It is concluded that remittances from outmigrants can have a positive effect on the rural economies. Investment opportunities for nonagricultural families must be provided.     

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.     

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.     

Passing by the Girls? Remittance Allocation for Educational Expenditures and Social Inequality in Nepal’s Households 2003–2004

We examine the utilization of remittances for expenditures associated with development, specifically children's education. We use household-level data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS II, 2003–04) to separate remittance effects from general household income effects to demonstrate the migration–development relationship reflected in child schooling investment. We find that family-household remittances are spent on education of children, but the expenditures are disproportionately for boys' schooling. Only when girls are members of higher-income households do greater schooling expenditures go to them. This gender-discriminating pattern at the household level contrasts with the call for universal and gender-equal education.     

Remittances,Institutions and Growth in Africa

Remittances have become an important source of external finance in many developing countries. This article examines the relationship between remittances, institutions and economic growth in a panel of 26 African countries over the period 1980–2014. We apply the fixed effects (FE) and the two‐step system generalized method‐of‐moments (GMM) estimation methods. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between remittances and growth. We also find that institutions are an important determinant of economic growth. The interaction terms have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. Thus, the growth effect of remittances is enhanced in the presence of strong institutions. Strong institutions are therefore germane in attracting greater remittance inflows to African countries. A clearer understanding of the channels through which remittance flows will enhance growth in African economies may assist policymakers to craft appropriate policies. In particular, a policy environment that promotes strong institutions would serve to attract more remittances.     

Cartographies of Cape Verdean transnationalism

In this article I explore the geographical structure of transnational practice by means of cartographic representations of statistical data. Using the case of Cape Verde, data on emigrant relatives, remittances, and migration aspirations are combined to produce a visual representation of a transnational social field. A second figure employs remittance statistics to show how the geography of transnational connections varies from island to island within the archipelago.     

Determinants of remittances in Egypt: Do macroeconomic instability and oil price matter?

Emigration and resulting voluminous remittance inflows have been noticeable features of the Egyptian economy since the 1960s. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of remittances – primarily the role of both macroeconomic instability and oil price – in Egypt. Using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure, we estimated a remittance determination equation over the period from 1980 to 2015 and found that: (1) macroeconomic instability in Egypt and increases in international oil prices promote remittances; (2) GDP growth rate in the host countries and depreciation of domestic currency spur remittances; (3) financial development is inversely related to remittances, implying that remittances and financial development are substitutes; (4) GDP growth in the home country is not significantly associated with remittances.     

Factors determining migrant remittances: the case of Greece

"In this study we review the literature regarding the theory and the empirical evidence regarding migrants' remittance behavior, and we examine the flow and determinants of remittances from Greek migrants for the period 1961 to 1991. The main body of data is for remittances to Greece from Germany, but for some years data are available for remittances from Belgium and Sweden as well. The objective of this study is to test the significance of certain factors in terms of their effects on remittances to Greece. These factors are the migrant's income, the migrant's family income, the rate of unemployment, the rate of interest, the exchange rate, and the rate of inflation. The study attempts to see if these factors have had any effect on the volume of remittances. It also attempts to see if there are any structural changes during this period that affect migrants' propensity to remit."     

Remittances and Other Financial Flows to Developing Countries

Official estimates of migrants’ remittances are around US$100 billion annually, with some 60 per cent going to developing countries. Any policy making use of migrants as a development resource must understand the size and allocation of remittances, and the roles played by migrants and their communities in the remittance process. This paper examines the flows of remittances in relation to other financial flows to developing countries. The examination is based on data available from official statistics. As discussed in the paper, remittances by unofficial channels are significant by all accounts so the remittance amounts reported here are quite conservative. The paper shows that annual remittances to developing countries have more than doubled between 1988 and 1999. Viewed over the last decade, remittances have been a much larger source of income for developing countries than official development assistance (ODA). The gap is increasing, since ODA has been falling while remittances have increased. Furthermore, remittances appear to be a much more stable source of income than private flows, both direct and portfolio, which tend to be more volatile and flow into a limited set of countries. Remittances to developing countries go first and foremost to lower middleincome and low–income countries. Lower middle–income countries receive the largest amounts, but remittances constitute a much higher share of total international flows to low–income countries. Of the ten countries receiving most remittances, two are low–income (India and Pakistan); six are lower middle–income (Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Thailand, and Jordan); and two are upper middle–income (Mexico and Brazil). Sub–Saharan Africa received some 8 per cent of remittances in 1980, but only some 4 per cent in 1999. South Asia’s share also declined from what was already a relatively high 34 to 24 per cent. Those who gained most were Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean, which increased their share of global remittances.