Remittances in the Great Lakes Region

Abstract

In the last several years, migrant remittances have received an increasing amount of attention from policymakers. While in the beginning the focus was on the volume and methods of remitting, gradually attention has been shifting towards using remittances as a development tool for the communities and countries of origin. However, while certain regions are very well researched and are characterized by an institutional structure that harnesses remittance-oriented policies (e.g. Mexico, the Philippines, Senegal and Morocco), others are not. The Great Lakes region (in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC, Burundi and Rwanda) belong to the latter group. Furthermore a number of factors, such as an underdeveloped financial and governmental infrastructure, the unstable political environment, the lack of available research and reliable data, hinder the implementation of policies aimed at remittances. According to the Belgian Department of Federal Immigration, about 22,000 Congolese, 2,000 Burundians and 6,000 Rwandans are living in Belgium. Taking into account Belgian inhabitants of Congolese, Burundian and Rwandan origin and undocumented migrants, the total size of the diaspora would amount to a number that is significantly higher than 30,000. Figures from the national banks of the DRC, Burundi and Rwanda show that the three countries, respectively, received US$ 97 million, US$ 4 million and US$ 16 million in 2004. These figures only include formal remittances. When informal money transfers are taken into account, these amounts would undoubtedly be much higher. TABLE REMITTANCE TYPES CLASSIFIED BY SENDER AND RECEIVER Recipient Sender Migrant Non-migrant(s) Collective Government Migrant Personal deposits or investments Intra-family transfer or transfers to friends Charitable donations Taxes or levies Collective Development projects Government Social security transfers Private business Company pensions Source: Carling 2005: 12. Among the formal remittance methods, the most important include cash-based electronic transfers, electronic account-to-account transfers, and card-based and paperbased transfers. Besides personal carriers of money, informal remittances systems often make use of informal transfer agencies. Cash-based electronic transfers Money transfer operators (MTOs) take a central place in this system. The main The main activity of MTOs is remitting money from one place to another. To remit money the sender has to deposit cash at an agency of an MTO, and the recipient can collect the money at an agency of the MTO in the destination country. To use this system, a number of conditions have to be met. The sender has to fill in a form with his or her coordinates and the coordinates of the recipient. In addition, the sender has to provide proof of identity and proof of residence. The sender then gives the amount of money she or he wants to remit to the agency, together with a commission fee, which can be a flat fee or dependent upon the amount of remitted money. The sender also fills out a form with the se...

The Role of Remittances as More Efficient Tool of Development Aid in Developing Countries

“…Remittances tend to decrease the longer the migrant community stays in the destination country. When an economy is too dependent on remittances a decrease of this money can have severe negative effects on the national income (De Bruyn and Wets, 2006).…”

Can Migratory Contacts and Remittances Contribute to Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda?

“…Since migrants are engaged in efforts to contribute to peace and stability, be it individually or within diasporic organizations, we would usually expect to find positive effects of migratory contacts on both the individual feelings of reconciliation and the cooperative behaviour of the Rwandese citizens. Rwandan migrants also direct large flows of remittances to Rwanda (De Bruyn and Wets, 2006; Mohamoud, 2006). In 2007, the country received about US$21 million in individual remittances from abroad (World Bank, 2008).…”

“…The relationship between remittances and economic processes, for example, has been researched extensively (e.g. De Bruyn and Wets, 2006; Maimbo and Ratha, 2005; Van Hear et al, 2004; World Bank, 2008). However, the impact of migration and remittances on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains largely underexposed.…”

Transnationalism of Burundian Refugees in The Netherlands: The Importance of Migration Motives

“…Moreover, most of these respondents possessed a Dutch passport that allowed them to travel to and from Burundi and they could afford to pay for these travels as well. Not only did they maintain social contacts with people in Burundi, they were also involved in sociocultural and political institutions and organizations in The Netherlands, and with the help of development aid they participated in development activities in Burundi [24,25]. A good example of respondents in this category is Maurice (male, age 48, naturalized).…”