Migrants’ remittances: channelling globalization

Abstract

Migrants' Remittances: Channelling Globalization * In the past twenty years the ever-growing levels of migrants' remittances made state agencies, international organizations, scholars and practitioners to increasingly consider remittances as one of the main engines to promote globalization and growth in the developing world. By transferring home large amounts of money, information, ideas and practices, migrants and migrant organizations are often seen as able to produce significant changes in countries and localities of origin. Focusing on cases from former socialist countries and around the world, this paper discusses the main debates surrounding the effects and uses of migrant remittances. Furthermore, using different case studies from Europe and Asia, the paper addresses the notion of social remittances, namely the transfers of ideas, practices and norms between societies of origin and destination. It highlights the ideas and practices migrants transfer home, the types of social norms it generates, and the extent to which migration produces transformations in countries of origin.

Remittances and return migration

“…Given that France and Italy are the main destination countries of migrants from the Maghreb region, it is expected that host countries’ cultural traits are transmitted to the origin countries. It is difficult to quantify these forms of transfer (see Anghel et al., for a review of the literature) but it is not in doubt that social remittances link society of origin and destination countries, and that the intensity of this link could be stronger in the case of migrants who return and share their experiences.…”

“…However, it contains important information discussed above and therefore the analysis could contribute to the literature on the determinants of remittances from the perspective of those who have actually returned to the home country. Return migrants are very important in promoting development through remittances, norms, social practices, and ideas about management, skills, and access to capital (Anghel, Piracha, & Randazzo, ). To our knowledge, no other data set on remittance behavior uses information from the actual returnees.…”

Adaptation to climate change: air-conditioning and the role of remittances

“…Future research is needed to understand whether there exist valid alternatives in a context like Mexico, and what role remittances can play. Through remittances migrants spread models of actions and notions of consumption from the destination country to that of their origins, showing how migrants even from abroad are continuously involved in their place of origin and orientate expenditure preferences of those left behind (Anghel et al 2015). Whether the social value of remittances can support adaptive capacity through network effects and through changes in social preferences is difficult to quantify (Boccagni and Decimo 2013) and requires dedicated studies.…”

“…Through these intangible mechanisms, remittances can contribute to re-orientating expenditure decisions (Anghel et al, 2015;Levitt, 1998).…”

External Financial Flows and GDP Growth in Kosovo

“…In Albania, for example, remittances surpass export, net FDI, and official development assistance. When considering remittances as a percentage of GDP, the World Bank ranks Albania among the first in Eastern Europe and the former countries of the Soviet Union, whereas, in Kosovo, they represent approximately 20–30 percent of the country’s GDP (Anghel, Piracha, & Randazzo, 2015). Hassan and Shakur (2017) have found a nonlinear relationship between remittances and economic growth.…”