 Rethinking remittance: The socioeconomic dynamics of giving for migrants and nonmigrantsJeffrey H. Cohen and Natalia Zotova Economic Anthropology, 2021, vol. 8, issue 2, 300-310 Abstract: The World Bank notes that officially recorded remittances reached $689 billion in 2018, including $529 billion to low‐ and middle‐income countries. While these figures are mind‐boggling and potentially render the act of migration as a clear decision, they do not communicate the social challenges that result for movers and nonmovers around migration and remitting. Our article is organized to better understand the complexities that surround remittances and the act of remitting. Based on research in Mexico and Tajikistan, we argue that while remittances are critical to household successes and can create a pathway to growth and economic success, they can also destabilize and undermine local practices as movers and nonmovers rethink life; engage in new kinds of labor; and reconsider their roles, responsibilities, and more. In the second part of our article, we argue that the dynamic effects of remittances are minimized and ignored, while their role in driving economic development is celebrated. Understanding remittance practices demands that we rethink academic boundaries and use ethnographic work to reconsider the centrality that development and economic growth often hold in our evaluations. Date: 2021 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:8:y:2021:i:2:p:300-310 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Economic Anthropology from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.