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Migrant Economies
What is Migration?

• Not a comprehensive discussion/coverage of migration 

• Beset by differing distinctions and oppositions:

• Forced Vs
...
Political

• Legal Vs
...
Pull

• Many academic theories of migration are economic in focus, of which I will touch on
three interlinked approaches

1
...
Continual expansion of the capitalist system destabilises the periphery –
STRUCTURE

3
...
‘Agency Driven’ Mobilities

• Voluntary migrants will go to where they can maximise their lifelong earning potential
(Borjas, 1989)

• Governments create migration policies to attract the talent they lack

• Driven by the idea of there being a ‘Migration Market’ in turn based upon two
assumptions:

1
...


2
...
g
...
Survival helped by hedging risk through multiple host countries
(Massey et al, 1993)

Relevance to Things, Problems with it…

• Relevance of the approach…

1
...
Thinking about family driven strategies is important for considering the role   of
remittance economies

• Criticisms of it:

1
...
Pays little attention to reality, context or complexity

B
...
Selective admission of the highly skilled to fill skills shortages

2
...
‘Networked Driven’ Mobilities

• Migrants make decisions on imperfect information shared across social networks
which include people who have already migrated

• In situ population help transition of new arrivals

• As momentum builds up, immigrant communities and enclaves develop (eg
...

•
•
•

Remittance Economies

What are remittances?

Why are they important?

Why do they matter for international development?


What are Remittances?

• Money sent as payments or gifts

• Migrants send money back ‘home’ to family members & friends

• Can be very important to countries with significant communities / diasporas overseas

• Even more important when two countries have been linked historically by migration for
a long time

Not Quite That Simple…

• “There is a general tendency in migration literature to focus exclusively on workers’
remittances, yet this may not capture the overall size and full impact of remittances
associated with the cross-border movements of people” (Ghosh, 2006)

• Cross-border, private, voluntary monetary and non-monetary (social or in-kind)
transfers made by migrants and diaspora, individually or collectively, to people or to
communities not necessarily in their home country
...
g
...
Social Insurance

• Positive  

• A relationships exists between remittances and poverty reduction


•

•

Adams and Page (2005) suggest a 10% increase in remittances leads to a 3
...
g
...
Means for Investment

• Recipient Households often make  higher investments in healthcare (UNDP 2009)

• Strong correlation between remittance receipt and educational attainment (see Ratha
2013 on Sub-Sharan Africa)

• Adams and Cuecuecha (2010) suggest that in Guatemala, those receiving international
remittances spend 58% more on education

• Allows accrual of liquid (cash) and fixed (property) assets

• Such investments often consumption focused (health, education, need) as opposed to
longer term projects (business startups etc
...
Non-Pecuniary Effects

• So-called ‘social remittances’ (Levitt 1998) being , “
...


1
...
Systems of practice (political participation, skills)

3
...
g cultural
globalisation)

Larger Scale (Macro) Impacts

• Some empirical studies show that remittances have the potential to positive affect
economic growth at a national scale (Solimano (2003)

• However, can breed over-reliance on a long term basis
...


• Proposals afoot to tax remittances

Case Study: Haiti

• Human Development Index Rank: 158/187

• GNI per capita $1123

• 77% in poverty

• 49% literate

• 4
...
1 years life expectancy

• >25% households receive remittances

• Remittance flows represent 3625% of inward FDI

• Remittance flows represent 21% of GDP (2009)


•

Therefore they are important!!


Classic Example of Diaspora Creation

• Neo-liberalised in the 1970s

• Destroyed Haiti’s agricultural sector

• Massive migration to Port-au-Prince

• High density poor living conditions

• International migration

• Regular travel between USA and Haiti – average remittance sent is $150 pcm

New York-Haiti - Remittance Corridor

• >$1 billion pa from USA (mainly Miami & NYC (Joseph & Hamilton, 2014)

• 29% of respondents for this study  had $0 in pre-remittance income, 9% of which
were unemployed

• This poorest group receive on average $883 pa spent on short term self-help (food,
medical, education)

• Remittance payments are vital for healthcare and for social mobility

• Only a small %age is invested in business

Vital for Disaster Relief

• “When my brother decided to support me financially to start the business, I could not
believe it
...
Each month he sends me money to
keep the door of the business open; however, for the past two months he did not send
money because I told him that the business can support itself
...
1/3 receiving cash transfers from oversees

2
...


• Elite migrants are often living transnational lives and are therefore simultaneously
embedded in multiple geographies (Koe and Wissink, 2017)

• The lives and people involved often transcend the traditional duality of ‘immigrationemigration’
...
Corporate Global Mobility (M/HNWIs)

• Similar dynamics to the economic migrations noted earlier

• Migration patterns follow work/employment

• Overseas placements, secondments vital to career development (often 1- 5 years)

• Corporate business travel (brief visits

• Distinct geographies of clusters and flows


B
...
UNHWIs worth >$30million

Mobility often not linked to ‘work’ or ‘profession’

Often linked to prestige, ostentation, education of dependents, tax minimisation,
‘presence’, maximising return on investment


Corporate Global Mobility: Talent Wars

• Often driven by the APS sector (see Lecture 7)

• A ‘global talent pool’ is needed for all sorts of reasons, the primary one being the
maintenance of competitive global cities

• ‘City’ jobs (and career progression) are built on:

1
...
Evidence of global career paths

• Barriers to entry: Elite education (Oxbridge, Harvard, MBA), internships, BRICS/MINT
experience

Case Study: London

• A distinct need for a global talent pool to maintain the economic competitiveness of
the City:

1
...
To ensure that leading global City firms can grow their business in situ and
worldwide, and work with global clients, supported by the most talented labour
force possible

3
...
As a mechanism to establish new relationships and networks with foreign
companies that do not have a presence in the City

5
...
This is a key
means for increasing the firm’s diversity of views, cultural knowledge and cohesion
...
This brings immense benefits: To clients—where talent
is moved to where it is most needed; for individual learning and development—there is
no better way to learn the intricacies of a local market than to immerse yourself in it;
for broadening the perspective of the whole firm—bringing market knowledge and
practice to share with another jurisdiction

• (http://gradsuk
...
com/uploaded_files/CC_CRR10
...
200,000 of these individuals globally including c
...
g via remittances
or via low tax jurisdictions for HNWIs

• Remittances play an important role in household economies and economic
development

• (U)HNWIs have produced entire industries supporting their lifestyles and mobilities

• All of this is profoundly geographical, implying development geographies, geographies
of crime, geographies of consumption

• The impacts of migration have both local and global reach




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