Collective Remittances and Development in Rural Mexico: a View from Chicago's Mexican Hometown Associations

Abstract

This paper addresses the changing agendas of US-based hometown associations (HTAs) in rural Mexico and the impact that these changes have on local government decisions to finance community development. The evidence that is offered in this paper confirms that local governments at the subnational state, municipal, and village levels are interested in maintaining the economic attachments of emigrant populations. These governments have created innovative state-society partnerships to reduce conflict with HTAs, maintain loyalties, and preserve the flow of remittances. Thus, one of the objectives of local governments is to sustain migrant collective remittance efforts in those sending regions that already have a critical mass of US-based HTAs that demand government funds for development. The inclusion of organised migrant voices in community development debates has the potential to increase transnational democratic participation. However, when the allocation of public funds is based on an approach that privileges diaspora-driven demands, this generates inequalities between international migrants and stay-at-home communities because it forces local sending communities to find HTAs across borders to solve infrastructure needs. As new hierarchies of place-based citizen participation become more prevalent, the voices of stay-at-home communities risk being ignored by local government officials.

Diaspora mobilization and the politics of loyalty in the time of Ebola: evidence from the Sierra Leonean diaspora in the UK

“…Studies on collective remittances and organized 'development' have been more equivocal, for some scholars believe that the large sums hometown associations send to their places of origin for infrastructural improvements and business investments can have a skewing effect on inequality and government priorities (Bada 2015;Skeldon 2008). International diasporas often claim the policy spotlight because of their visibility to donors and academics in the developed North.…”

Trust and Hometown Associations in Haitian Post‐Earthquake Reconstruction

“…The Mexican diaspora is the most salient and studied case of HTAs in the US (Bada, 2015;Fauser & Nijenhuis, 2015). There are approximately 3,000 Mexican HTAs in the United States (Orozco & Zanello, 2009, p.1).…”

Social Mechanisms in Local Transformations: Towards a Conclusion

“…Some migrant associations follow the example of established civil society actors by positioning themselves in the policy field of development. This can be seen in the way hometown associations in the USA have gradually evolved as civil society actors negotiating with municipal, provincial, and national governments in Mexico on investing remittances (Bada, 2016) and in the practices of migrant associations in Spain that copy patterns of interaction with local governments (Østergaard‐Nielsen & Acebillo‐Baqué, ).…”