Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgetown University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-83).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-198).

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Immigrant remittances have received increasing attention over the last couple of decades, due to the substantial financial inflows into developing countries, as their size and impact on the economies have experienced significant growth over a period of time. This study has investigated the relationship between financial development, specifically for the banking sector, and remittances for eight Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries by utilising panel estimation techniques from 1993-2011. In this particular study, the investigation was focused on the association between remittances and the aggregate level of bank deposits (M2) and domestic credit to the private sector that represented financial development. For M2, the results showed that remittances are negatively correlated with money supply and it was not statistically significant for this equation. However, in terms of domestic credit to the private sector, a positive and significant determinant was found for remittances and financial development in these eight Sub-Saharan countries. It is recommended that policymakers should develop and implement sustainable policies to facilitate uninterrupted flow of remittances, strengthen financial institutions and sound macro-economic policies in order to attract more remittances through the banking sector.

In any act of household migration, there are movers (the migrant) and stayers (those left behind), and both of these two groups have expectations. The movers expect to make some benefits at the destination while the stayers expect the migrant to send or do something at home of origin. Some work, though limited, has been done to improve our understanding of how potential migrants form their expectations of what they can get from the destination country in studies involving determinants of individual migration. But for those left behind very little is known about how they form their expectations of what they can get from the migrant. The few studies that have been done on this have only used observed flow of remittances to estimate what people left behind expect from migration. Hence these studies equate observed flow of remittances to expected flows. And by this equation, these studies also assume perfect information flow between migrants and relations left behind as well as perfect knowledge to help those left behind to form realistic expectations: expectations that reflects exactly what can be sent to them. Obviously these assumptions are not tenable. These untenable assumptions also leave a hole in our ability to explain why a household will choose to either continue supporting members for migration or not. This is because we cannot tell from observed data alone whether or not the desire to continue to support migration of a household or a family member is as a result of well-informed subjective expectations or not. The crust of the problem here is therefore that by relying on observed data alone we fail to account for the important role subjective expectations or beliefs of those left behind play in decisions for further migration movements, especially within the family. To be able to unravel this problem we need elicitation of subjective expectations of remittance flows from those left behind. Using data from a specially designed survey in two districts in Ghana, I construct time-adjusted subjective remittance expectations of migrant families at home of origin and analyse the factors that determine the formation of these expectations and how formation of these expectations can help us explain perpetuation of migration within a household. The key analytical models employed in these investigations are summarised below In order to understand the exogenous determinants of remittance expectations of migrant households, I first of all estimate factors that influence performance of migrant at home of origin and general flow of information between the migrants and the household members left behind. In order to see the effect of remittances on formation of subjective expectations, remittance flow was measured in terms of migrant performance by adjusting the flows to the time period during which the migrant could do what he or she has done. The items were limited to the popular ones people receive: money for living expenses, establishment of a house and business investment. The theoretical explanation for this adjustment is that if the observed trend in remittance flow has any effect on expectations it would be through individual household’s evaluation of what migrants have achieved within a certain number of years. In other words, all things being equal, families whose migrants took much longer period to achieve certain things would have lower levels of expectations than a comparable family whose migrant took relatively shorter period. This is because taking a long time to achieve something at home of origin would breed some kind of skepticism and uncertainty among those left behind as to what they can get from migration. And this skepticism can lead to low levels of expectations. This is also in line with the reference people left behind often make when talking about achievements of migrants at home of origin as they always point to what XYZ has done. Ordinary least squared regression is then used to estimate factors determining level of migrant performance at home of origin after the transformation of the dependent variable: migrant performance. Heckman selection model is also applied to control for possible effect of bias since some households have migrants who have done nothing at home. Kinship ties are the major factors under this investigation. To determine the main factors influencing information flow, ordinary least squared estimates are used while a generalised ordered logit model, with maximum likelihood method, is used to estimate the factors influencing the likelihood of a household getting higher categories of private/dedicated information from the migrant. Major factors for this investigation are kinship ties and performance of migrant at home of origin. Since information flow and remittance flows are suspected to have endogenous relationship, instrumental variables (IV) technique is employed to estimated impact of remittance flow on both private and public information flows. This is important for us to understand how information flow act as exogenous determinant of subjective remittance expectations, and resultant effect on perpetuation of migration. Once current information flow and performance of migrants have been examined and effects of their exogenous factors estimated, the next stage of the analysis is the examination of effects of these past performance and information flow on household subjective remittance expectations while controlling for other major exogenous factors such as kinship ties, level of education and household wealth. Ordinary least square regression technique is used to estimate major determinants of these levels of expectations. However, to control for possible bias resulting from the fact that a select group of households may not expect anything, Heckman selection model is applied. The final analysis is the estimation of impact household subjective remittance expectations on migration-support intentions. Due to the problem of endogenous relationship between expectations and migration decisions, ordinary maximum likelihood estimates would not be very effective in identifying the real impact expectations have on migration decisions. Hence I use maximum likelihood with endogenous repressors to estimate or identify the influence of expectation on potential migration decisions, applying the probit model with selection model (heckprob) technique. Ordered probit analysis is also used to investigate what determines household’s desire to support more than one person for migration. The results are summarised below. Summary of Findings Economics and sociology literature makes us aware that in order to understand formation of expectations of any kind we first have to investigate two important factors: past events and current information flow, because these are the two factors that hugely influence expectations. Hence, for us to understand remittance expectations, we first have to understand two issues: observed past flows of remittances and current flow of information between the migrant and relations left behind at home of origin. If remittance flows should influence household or family’s (including the extended family members) subjective expectations and the support to move abroad, it should largely do so in terms of what has been observed in the past. In Chapter Six, I investigated the influence of kinship ties on receipts of remittances. As expected, closer migrant relations such as spouse and head of family stand a much better chance of having better performance from migrant than distant kinship ties such as friendship. However when it comes to performance in individual items such as house or business investment, a household cannot rely only on kinship ties with migrant. It should also have some wealth. Specifically, among the kinship ties only spousal relationship was found to have positive effect on migrant performance in areas such as housing and business investment. Thus the influence of kinship ties on observed flow of remittances is mostly limited to money for living expenses, unless the family left behind is wealthy enough to enable allocation of what is sent into other things such as investment in housing and business. With kinship ties being very influential in the determination of past performance of migrants one would expect that these ties would also influence information flow if the assumption of remittance and information flow being together holds. It has always been assumed by cumulative causation theories of migration that together with the flow of remittances from migrant to relations back at home is the flow of information that connects migrant, potential migrants and those left behind (Massey et al, 1993). If this is the case then relationship should be a key factor in determining information flow from the migrants, because these ties influence flow of remittances. Results from the 2SLS model show that remittance flow has impact only at the lower levels of private information flow, reinforcing the point that information that comes with remittance flow may just be social issues such as size of family, marital status, and not economic ones. In spite of their strong effect on remittance flow or migrant performance, all the types of kinship ties generally have negative effects on private information flow. Thus kinship ties are not enough for those left behind to get more private information from the migrant relations residing abroad. It should not be surprising that remittance flows do not lead to higher levels of information flow from the migrants to those left behind. This is because remittances are mostly made up of monetary transfers for living expenses which may not carry much information with it as, in most cases, migrants do not require monitoring. And with electronic transfers of these days, it becomes more implausible to assume that remittance flows, which are mostly limited to monetary transfers, would generate private information as the interpersonal exchanges in these transfers become more and more reduced. But since the lower levels of private information flows only contain pieces of information such as marital status, household size and education levels, it follows that remittance flow may not be the best channel through which relations get important information about the socioeconomic conditions of the migrant. Perhaps this assumption was more plausible about 30 years ago when migrants mostly relied on methods such as using other migrants going home. Families left behind have to rely on their wealth or good level of education to be able to source information from the migrants. On the other hand, remittance flow or migrant performance has highly significant and positive influence on public information flow, suggesting that what migrants do at home influence some perceived knowledge of the migrants’ socioeconomic conditions. It is also interesting to note that factors such as average household education and wealth that have significant positive effect on private information flow have negative effect on public information flow. One can therefore deduce that the more families are able to access information from the migrants themselves, the less they rely on migration information from nonmigrant sources or the general public in the community of origin. Unfortunately remittance flow is unable to help those left behind to get more information from the migrant. Hence most of them will have to rely on public information. With the flow of crucial information such as economic conditions of migrants lacking or being inadequate, it can be concluded that there would be some level of uncertainty about conditions. And this level of uncertainty may lead to some guess-work or reliance on information from other sources in the formation of remittance expectations. That is, would their inability to access crucial information on economic conditions of the migrants “push” them to rely on information reaching them from other sources in the formation of expectations? Also if the wealthy and the more educated families are more likely to know more about the migrants, and if knowing more about the migrant is most likely to temper high expectations with realism as hypothesized in this study, would it be fair to conclude that wealthier and more educated families may have ambivalent, if not negative expectation levels? Results from Chapter Seven show that families would use their experience of what migrants have done at home of origin as a starting point in the formation of their remittance expectations in terms of whether or not they should expect something. But once their expectation status is assured, families are much more influenced by other factors than migrant performance in the formation of their subjective remittance expectation levels. In other words at lower levels of information, remittance expectations seem to be more adaptive to past trends of observed remittance flows. Kinship ties become very significant in this respect in spite of its insignificant influence on information flow. This raises a question of whether or not the effect of kinship ties on formation of remittance expectations is informed by information from the migrants. All the results point to the contrary. The effects of kinship ties on subjective remittance expectations are informed more by past experience of remittance receipts than current dedicated/ private flow of information between the families and the migrants. When kinship ties are interacted with private information their effects on remittance expectations are, however, significantly reduced, indicating that when people take private or dedicated information into consideration their high expectations are very much checked. What are the implications of subjective remittance expectations form under low levels of dedicated information flow for migration decisions? Chapter Eight sought to provide the answer to this question. The results confirmed the hypothesis that subjective remittance expectations formed under inadequate flow of dedicated information would lead to increasing desire to support more migration from the family and the opposite should also true. That is under inadequate information flow, subjective remittance expectations have highly positive effect on desire to perpetuate migration more than the demonstrative effect of migrant performance, emphasizing the importance of expectations in perpetuation of migration. However, the strong effect of expectations and kinship ties on desire to support migration could be reduced if high levels of dedicated information are taken into consideration. Further investigation into why some families with remittance expectations would still not want to support members to migrate revealed that, in addition to private or dedicated information flow, average household education level is a major factor that discourages families with remittance expectations from further supporting members to migrate. This is in sharp contrast with the generally accepted view that education selects families and individuals into migration, especially international migration. This is true in the general population. When only migrant families are sampled, as in this study, the effects of education on migration are tempered with information flow. Education allows the family to access more and more of private/dedicated information which has negative effect on remittance expectations. It is therefore not surprising that education may discourage families with expectations to continue supporting migration. But since most people do not get the private information or do not even consider it as, expectations which are hugely informed by past performance, public information and mere kinship ties would continue to drive perpetuation of migration, at least, at the household level.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-173). University of Wisconsin, Madison login ID required. Also available on the Internet.

Migrant workers in the developed countries remit part of their earnings to their families, relatives, and friends left behind in their old communities in the less developed countries. Remittances, as financial resources whether delivered in cash or in kind, have been playing great roles in the development of the economies of many developing countries. Remittances are now taking the lead after foreign direct investment in most aid recipient countries. Remittances are believed to remain a stable source of foreign exchange (Ratha 2003:163). They have great impact on the society at large and on the living standards of most remittance recipient households. Remittances can be classified as private development assistance because they are sent from individual migrants. At the same time, they are family welfare systems or safety nets that are delivered directly to the beneficiaries. Why do migrants remit? There are different theories of remittances that attempt to explain the act of remitting. Such theories range from an altruistic behaviour, which according to some studies about 75 percent of remitters claim to be motivated by enlightened-self interest, implicit family loan agreement and implicit co-insurance. The macro-economic determinants and the social networks also play a part in influencing the flow in volumes and frequencies of these moneys. Eritrea, as a country that has come out of protracted and devastating thirty years of war, started its development from meagre resources. In fact according to Randall (1995), in 1991 - the year Eritrea got its independence - 85 percent of its people were living on foreign aid whether in the form of remittances or food aid. During the armed struggle, the role of the Diaspora Eritreans was significant not only as financial support but also because they acted as spokespersons for the little-known struggle for independence. It was therefore imperative for Eritrea to rely heavily on its Diaspora population for their financial, technical and other material resources to rehabilitate its devastated economy. To regain sovereignty means a lot to Eritreans as a whole and to the Diaspora Eritreans in particular. After independence, hundreds of thousands of the Eritrean Diaspora flew to their country, met their families and visited different historical places. According to the ministry of Tourism of the State of Eritrea, more than 70,000 Diaspora Eritreans visit the country annually, which means a sustainable level of tourism development can be achieved. The Diaspora also initiated different projects. The study has come to realise that indeed there are different projects that are sponsored by the Eritrean Diaspora in concern of their immediate families, communities and investments for their potential profits. Although it is difficult to put it in terms of figures or percentiles, some estimates put the annual remittances received by Eritreans to be between 200 - 300 million US dollars. Remittances, whether consumed or invested, are estimated to contribute enormously to the Eritrean economy, which roughly estimated is 19-37 percent of GDP. As in the case of Mexico, remittances' trickling down effect is 3:1 (Adelman and Taylor 1990 as cited in Ratha, 2003). Likewise, the developmental effect of remittances in the Eritrean economy is also estimated no less, if not more. Furthermore, the Government of the State of Eritrea implemented different policy measures to ease the flow of remittances and to guide the individual remitter in the use of these financial resources in the domestic economy. Different investment opportunities such as housing projects, sale of shares and stocks of government owned enterprises and treasury bonds are to mention but a few. Similarly, the government, to augment the Martyrs' Trust Fund and to increase the tax base of the economy, introduced directives plus nominal tax rates to the Diaspora Eritreans. Institutionalising Diaspora Eritreans and securitization of the future-flow of remittances also helped the government to get access to international markets, to avoid credit rationing in the face of deteriorating sovereign risks. The dissertation attempts to capture the role of remittances as development tools in the Eritrean economy. After introducing the geopolitical and economic background history of the country in chapter one, in chapter two attempts are made to cover extensively the definitions, uses and drawbacks of remittances. In chapter the different theories or determinants of remittances and the transfer channels and their associated problems are described. In chapter four endeavours are made to assess the different policy measures applied by labour exporting countries to influence the flow of remittances and their uses. For comparison of these policies, three countries experiences are presented. Finally in chapter five the paper tries to draw conclusions and advance some recommendations. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 164-173).

A number of studies by academics, scholars and researchers have been conducted on the subject of remittances. The focus of these studies has been on developing countries where remittance corridors have long been established. These studies have focused more on the effects of remittances at micro level, in other words poverty alleviation as result of the decline of FDI; PI and ODA. Established remittance corridors are found in Asia, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, South America, the Caribbean, West Africa as well as North Africa. Few studies have been conducted into new emerging corridors that are still being established, such as the South Africa-Zimbabwe, Botswana-Zimbabwe and the Namibian-Zimbabwe corridors where a large number of Zimbabweans have migrated to. Economic growth and development are major challenges facing developing countries due to lack of finance. With the decline of FDI, PI, ODA as well as credit since the global financial crisis in 2008, there is a need for research to determine other alternative sustainable sources of finance to enable economic growth and development. Available literature and empirical evidence on the subject matter suggest remittances as a complementary source not a substitute of FDI, PI, ODA and credit. This means that governments in developing countries should not neglect their duty to collect revenue, should promote FDI and PI and not be dependant solely on remittances. Like FDI, PI and ODA, the flow of remittances is also determined by the socio-economic and political factors. Any negative effect on the socio-economic and political factors may also lead to the decline of remittance flows. Whilst other developing countries in established remittance corridors have put policies and systems in place to harness and ensure maximum benefits of remittances, countries such as Zimbabwe have not done much to realise potential and the impact that remittances can make. This is evidenced from the lack of reliable data which according to Chami et al. (2008:21) places severe constraints on the types of questions that can be asked and conclusions that can be drawn from statistical analyses. Secondly, emigration from Zimbabwe can be regarded to be in its infancy stage compared countries like Nigeria and Egypt where migration to developed countries has reached maturity stage. The evidence of this is seen on the volume of remittances currently being received by these two countries. Therefore, this study will complement existing data and literature available particularly on this corridor. Remittances are channelled either through formal or informal channels. The literature available and empirical evidence suggests that the bulk of remittances are channelled through informal channels as opposed to formal channels (Crush et al.,2012:20). Within the South Africa-Zimbabwe corridor, 85 percent of remittances to Zimbabwe are channelled informally (von Burgsdorff, 2012: 17) and are not captured in the official statistics such as the Balance of Payments. The drawback of this is lack of accurate data which precludes more rigorous statistical analysis in this field (von Burgsdorff, 2010:12). This study will endeavour to capture valuable statistics with regards to remittances. Most developing countries that have relied on aid are also burdened with huge unsustainable external debts (Obasanjo, 2000). The external debts continue to have an adverse effect of slowing down economic growth and development as these countries have an obligation to pay back the debts. Settling of external debts has been one of the biggest challenges facing developing countries. With the rise of remittances, Olubiyi (2013:1) sees them as a replacement to credit to a country that is constrained. Instead of borrowing finance for growth and development, remittances can be used instead. Apart from substituting credit with remittances, countries which are not burdened with external debts are able to use remittances as a leverage to obtain foreign loans (Taylor, 1999:69). The loans acquired can used for supplementing revenue derived from the fiscus and other sources of external finance such as FDI, PI and ODA.

Migrant labourers who cross borders often have to send money back to their various countries of origin. These monetary transfers are known as remittances. To send these funds migrants often opt to rely on informal mechanisms as opposed to the remittance services of formal financial institutions such as banks. Informal remittance mechanisms raise a number of concerns such as those related to consumer protection. In contrast to formal channels informal channels are not based on any legally binding agreements. They are highly based on trust and do not offer any legally binding guarantee that the funds will be delivered or that the remitter will be reimbursed in the event of non-delivery. Aside from consumer protection concerns, informal remittances also raise security related concerns. These channels are not subject to the supervision of any regulatory authority and usually offer a high level of anonymity. They can act as an attractive mechanism for terrorists and criminal organisations to launder and mobilise their illicit funds. Taking into mind the concerns mentioned above, as well as others, it would be preferable for more remittances to be channelled through formal financial mechanisms. In conducting research on remittance transactions financial, as well as other institutions and organisations, have outlined legal and regulatory provisions in sending and recipient countries as being a factor that often hinders migrants from accessing formal financial services. This dissertation examines how the South African legal and regulatory framework affects the formalisation of remittances by migrant labourers, with a focus on the context of low-income migrants. The study identifies the Exchange control, immigration, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism legislative provisions as being the most significant provisions that affect the formalisation of migrant remittances. So as to make an analysis and gather recommendations were possible, a comparison of the South African legal and regulatory provisions is made to those of Zambia and Zimbabwe. xiii The dissertation comes to the conclusion that South African legal and regulatory provisions hinder the formalisation of migrant remittances to a certain extent. They do so by collectively and individually restricting migrants who do not fulfil legislative requisites from accessing formal remittance channels. It is submitted that such migrants are inclined to rely on informal remittance mechanisms when the need to send money arises. Furthermore, South African law restricts competition within the remittance market by making it difficult for service providers to enter the market. The lack of an adequate competitive level fosters the prevalence of high remittance costs which can pose a significant barrier to low income migrants that wish to channel funds via formal means. Taking into mind the significance of formalising remittances as well as the objectives that the laws that hinder them seek to attain, which are equally significant, it is necessary for the regulatory authorities to investigate ways on how to possibly cater for both. It is submitted that if more remittances were to be channelled through official means the objectives sought to be attained by some of these legislative provisions would be attained more efficiently.

The investigation of the relationships between migration processes and the reconstructions of social identities and of social relations within local, national and international contexts illustrates how social change in an Oaxacan community in Mexico is a complex, multi-faceted process. This study examines how migration processes and social change shape and are shaped by people and practices in specific historical moments interacting dialectically with broader social, economic and political structures. By paying greater attention to the quotidian and to the choices that people make as they go about their daily lives, the heterogeneity and multiplicity of community members' subjectivities and experiences are highlighted. Gender, ethnicity, race, age, class, sexuality, and religion are examined as crucial variables in processes of social differentiation and in the social reproduction of gender/racial/class hierarchies in which women and men are situated. The research applies the concept of hegemony to demonstrate that power is not separate from meaning; the social construction of meanings plays an important role in the creation of consent, collaboration or resistance. Community members have internalized their own domination through hegemonic processes, reproducing the dominant social order, yet they frequently challenge their own particular social locations within this social order. Migration processes and the globalization of communication and consumption in advanced capitalism have played key roles in these processes. New experiences and information technologies have led to a redefining and re-presenting of meanings and practices which have had negative and positive impacts on individuals, on families and on the community.