This thesis explores the impact that the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) between Mexico and Canada has on the Mexican workers participating in it and in their communities in Mexico. The experience of the SAWP allows its participants to develop themselves and therefore contribute to the development of their communities and home towns. While some people will see this program as merely for poverty alleviation, this research shows that with the right incentives it has potential to become a development tool for many rural communities in different states of Mexico.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / This study examines internal migration, remittances and welfare impacts among migrant households in the Dormaa Municipality in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Data were gathered though a questionnaire survey among 202 migrant households and in-depth interviews with 8 of them and some key informants. The findings were analysed largely based on the Push-Pull theory and New Economics of Labour Migration Theory. The findings of the study indicate that an overwhelming majority of migrant households reported an improved welfare as a result of having a migrant in their household who have moved away to other communities during the last 10 years and have been away for the last six months or are expected be away for six months or more. Majority of these migrants sent remittances back to their families left behind, either in the form of cash or goods. More males migrate than females,which is consistent with the general tendency for males to migrate more than females. The age category with the highest proportion of migrants was 30-39 years. Many of the migrants moved to another town or village in Ghana for work-related reasons, notably job transfer, work, or seek work/better work. The migrants themselves were the main people who made the decisions to migrate followed by spouses, parents and siblings, lending support to the collective decision making within households. Also, most of the migrants had some connections or contacts at their most recent migration destinations. A lot of the migrants relied on their personal savings to finance their migration whilst others received funds from family members and banks to finance their migration. The study recommend that government should make efforts to monitor remittance flow in Ghana and also increase awareness about the importance of remittance for the national and household economy. Further, there is the need to scale up education on social attitudes and discourses about internal migration and policy initiatives on remittance management in Ghana.

This thesis describes a study undertaken in the semi arid areas of Limpopo among rural households with or without migrant workers in their households. The study aimed at analyzing and establishing the association between unequal distribution of land and other productive assets and rural household migration decisions; and to ascertain the relationship between migration remittances received by migration sending households and rural inequality in the migration sending economies. In essence, two important phenomena of inequality and migration are addressed simultaneously from two related angles: the effect of rural inequality on migration behaviour and the effect of migration (through cash and in-kind remittances) on rural inequality. A combination of explorative and confirmative economic analytical tools was used for empirical data analysis. Explorative analysis was meant to present distribution characteristics of the data including frequency analysis, descriptive statistics and cross tabulation; correlation and non-parametric analysis. In the confirmative analysis model specific deterministic relationships among variables or response models were used to confirm the existence of relationships. First, the Gini coefficient technique and Lorenz curves were used to measure inter household income and asset inequality. Factor Analysis (FA) was used to combine variables and create new but fewer factors; and logistic regression analysis LRA) was used to determine variables that positively or negatively affect migration. A survey was conducted among 573 rural households selected from 24 villages of Limpopo in the Central, Southern and Western Regions. Two types of research instruments were used. The first was a semi-structured village questionnaire to gather qualitative information about the villages by interviewing key informants. The second instrument was a structured household questionnaire, which provided information on household composition and characteristics, household income land and other assets, environmental issues, migration and remittances. The household head or his/her deputy responded to a major part of the questionnaire but the migrants responded to some of the migration and remittance related questions. Findings from the Gini coefficient measure and Lorenz curves indicated uneven assets distribution and that landlessness is common in Lebowa. However, comparatively, land and income are more evenly distributed than the other assets. The results of the correlation matrix indicate that there is a negative correlation between the presence of migrants and per-capita household assets and per-capita land ownership (-0.043 and – 0.126 respectively). A one tailed t test indicated that per-capita land is significantly related to the presence of migrants within households (p<05). The presence of migration in a household was also negatively correlated with adult equivalent landholding. Households with migrants tended to have smaller landholdings and the relationship between migration and other asset categories were negative, implying an inverse relationship between them and the propensity to migrate. Variables influencing migration were aggregated using Factor analysis and on the basis of the factor loadings four factors (components) with the largest loadings were identified as: household land and income factor, livestock factor, asset (farm and non farm) factor and lastly pension and household composition factor. The Logistic regression analysis (LRA) using a non-metric, dichotomous dependent ‘dummy variable for presence of migrants in households showed that: the presence of migrant(s) is significantly influenced by per-capita land, per-capita income, per-capita all assets, and total assets (p<05). The results show that a unit increase in value of per capita assets will result to 0.1 percent change in the odds ratio against migration; a unit increase in pension received by a member in a household will result in a 0.6 per cent change in odds ratio against migration; as pension money increases there would be less incentive for members of the household receiving it to migrate. However, a unit increase in per capita income will not result in any change in the odds ratio of migration. In the Central, Southern and Western regions of Limpopo households with smaller land holding per capita tended to have migrants, however, the pattern of migration from these areas does not support the hypothesis that higher inequality of land holding lead to higher out-migration. The Western Region, which has better land distribution than the other two regions, has a higher proportion of households with migrants than the other two regions. Thus, migration must be influenced by a complex association of variables other than just land. Livestock did not have significant influence on migration from the rural areas. This is not surprising for Limpopo, since the province is not well endowed with livestock as a form of asset. Nevertheless, households with migrants have higher total value of livestock than those without migrants. The empirical findings have shown that remittances are an important source of livelihood and the relationship between migration and rural inequality depend critically on how remittances and the losses and gains of human resources through migration are distributed across households. Different income sources add to income inequality but at different rates and extent. In the case of Limpopo, remittances account for a smaller percentage of total inequality (14.9%) than that of salaries and wages (72.3%); pensions contribute the least to the rural income inequality, contributing only 4.3%. This means that remittances are distributed more evenly than salaries and wages among the households that receive them. It means also that even some migration sending households at the lower end of the income spectrum in rural areas have access to some migrant remittances. Income inequality decreases considerably when migrant remittances are combined with income from other sources; in our case it drops by fifteen percentage points from 0.62 to 0.47. The influence of migration remittances upon income inequality will tends to become more favourable as migration opportunities spread throughout the villages. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / PhD / unrestricted

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This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth, and remittances, financial development, and globalization after controlling for different levels of international financial distress. We study four of the major remittances recipient countries individually over the period of 1976 to 2012 using an autoregressive distributed lag method (ARDL). The results show that in Mexico, Bangladesh, and India remittances work as a stabilizing factor on their economies. Significant results of a positive long run correlation between remittances and GDP levels are also found in the results of Bangladesh and Mexico. High levels of financial distress have a negative impact on GDP in Mexico. We conclude that the level of financial integration between economies affect how financial distress in one economy spills over to another. This paper also finds that in the short run when globalization increases, uncompetitive businesses are outrivaled in Mexico and in Bangladesh, due to big neighbors like the United States or China and India. For Bangladesh, the financial development is destabilizing in the short run, and in the long run it correlates negatively with GDP. For India, this study finds that higher levels of both financial development and globalization promote long term economic growth. For China, few conclusions are drawn.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to study the association between remittances, socioeconomic status and ties to destination and origin country among immigrants and the second-generation in the UK. The data stem from wave 1 and 4 (2009 and 2013) of the Understanding Society - The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). Two Models are specified. The first one is cross-sectional and places an explicit focus on remittances to family and friends. The second Model utilizes longitudinal data to study the dynamics between remittances and employment status. Employment status is the main independent variable in both Models. The main findings harmonize with previous research indicating that while economic factors are important, other factors, for example, family bonds and time since migration, can be of equal weight for the understanding of remittances. Relative to an immigrant, the second generation is found to have significantly lower odds of remitting to family and friends and to remit for any reason. It is likely that an intricate mix of individual capacity, incentives and desires guide the decision to remit, making it a truly multifaceted phenomenon.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Remittances inflows have gradually become one of the major sources of external financial inflows to developing countries. As a result, research abounds on the developmental effects of remittances in the home countries of migrants. At the micro level, recipients of remittances are more likely to have better access to quality health care, education as well as start-up fund for their own businesses. On the other hand at the macro level, remittances inflows can help increase the credit worthiness of countries by enabling them to use future remittances inflows as collateral for loans. Additionally, remittances inflows as a source of foreign exchange can be used by countries to fund import bills. Although there has been a surge of scholarship on remittances, this scholarship seems to be concentrated on the economic study of migration instead of the macroeconomic aspects of remittances. Furthermore, comparative studies on these macroeconomic aspects of remittances especially on African countries are underresearched and remains at the backwaters of academic study. Using quantitative time series data, this research seeks to do a comparative study on the countercyclical nature of remittances in four selected West African countries (Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal). The research used descriptive trend analysis, autocorrelation and an ARMAX model analyse the research problem. After critical analysis on whether remittances are countercyclical or not using the 2009 global financial crisis as a reference year in these four countries, it was found that, remittance inflows to Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal were pro-cyclical in nature. Moreover, in analysing the relationship between remittances inflows and gross domestic product (economic growth) the research revealed that there was a positive relationship between remittances inflows and economic growth for the four countries (Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal) observed. One recommendation given from this study is that, there is the need for remittances inflows to be invested in productive activities. This is because even if remittances continue to increase, without its investment in productive sectors, it cannot have any meaningful impact on economic growth in these countries.

This thesis will examine the adoption, usage and outcomes of a mobile money service called MPESA. Since being launched in 2007, the service has seen phenomenal growth in Kenya. Over 7.5 million users, or 34% of the adult population, have registered with M-PESA. Such growth is impressive as it has surpassed other ICTs in the country. This includes the mobile phone, which has been hailed as the fastest growing ICT in Africa. It has also surpassed the growth of mobile money in the North, where many services have been discontinued because they failed to attract a sufficient number of customers. M-PESA thus provides an interesting case of an ICT growing rapidly in the South, and “failing” in the North. In this context, the first part of the thesis examines why such rapid growth occurred. This analysis is presented from two perspectives. First, the socio-technical systems framework is used to present M-PESA as a complex system rather than an isolated application. This perspective makes clear that M-PESA grew rapidly because it had a dedicated team of system builders. These individuals took numerous strategies to enroll the elements and maintain the stability of the entire system. They further worked to engineer the social, economic, legal and political environments of the technology. Growth is also explained from the perspective of the user. The thesis makes clear that M-PESA was widely adopted because it fit into existing social practices and systems of logic. In other words, it helped users to do what they were doing before the technology was introduced. This includes money transfers back home. It also includes savings. The thesis further reveals that financial practices began to change as M-PESA became integrated into daily life. For example, users began to send money home more often. They also increased the number of their savings transactions. Such changing practices engendered a variety of consequences to daily life. This includes rising household incomes in the rural areas. It also includes new struggles over limited resources. The impacts, or wider-scale implications of usage, are also discussed. The analysis shows that a whole industry for mobile money developed as a result of M-PESA’s success. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in several ways. It presents a case of domestication in the South and highlights the unique factors that shape this process, from wide-scale political violence to structures of debt and obligation. It further makes the relationship between technologies and impact more clear. It shows that the technology itself does not engender the outcomes. It does, however, have a role in shaping the practices that do.

After discussing the Malawian context and summarising the remittance research, I focus on remittances in rural Malawi. I follow remittances from the giver’s motivations through to the receiver’s view of remittances and how the receiver uses them and finally to their impact as a means of moderating the effect of negative shocks on the receiving household. Results show that parents remit to respondents for altruistic purposes, or for insurance motivations (e.g. to help out the respondent if they are sick). Respondents remit to parents for altruistic motivations and inheritance. There is strong bi-directionality in the remittance flows. Children remit to respondents as an “insurance premium”, and for inheritance motivations. Altruism motivates respondents to give to their children. There is strong evidence of co-insurance between respondents and their siblings with both insurance payouts and premiums being paid. Respondents and their siblings also remit to each other for altruistic motivations. There is strong evidence of “mental accounting” amongst both male and female headed households. Remittances exhibit a much lower MPC than salary and farming income. Male and female headed households differ in their use of income from different sources, however one result is consistent: remittances are used for education. Probit models indicate that households are more likely to receive remittances from local areas if someone in the household is sick (local remittances insure a health shock). Households that suffer from drought are more likely to receive remittances from more distant areas (other districts, a city, abroad). Drought has a major negative impact on consumption levels but distant remittances insure affected households who suffer from these. Local remittances, which make up most remittance flows, are unable to insure these community shocks. Only around 10 per cent of households receive remittances from outside their home district however. Remittances help to insure household consumption against health shocks, but only food consumption is insured.

In developing countries, remittances play a key role as a source of external finance. Remittances are a form of aid that migrant workers send back to their families, located in their home countries, in order to support the needs of the household. In about 25% of developing countries, remittances are larger than public and private capital flows combined (International Monetary Fund, 2009). In 2008, the Philippines economy was the 47th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $322 billion dollars (Asian Development Bank, Fact Sheet). Remittances accounted for over 10% of the Philippine economy, making the Philippines one of the world’s highest remittance receiving countries. Using a probit model and an OLS regression model focusing on the Philippines in 2003, this paper will focus on exploring what variables influence the decision to send a household member away for work, what factors contribute to whether or not a household receives a remittance and if they do, how these same characteristics affect the value of the remittance.