More than Altruism: Cultural Norms and Remittances Among Hispanics in the USA

Monika Lopez-Anuarbe, Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco () and Yongjin Park ()
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Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco: Connecticut College
Yongjin Park: Connecticut College
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Maria Amparo Cruz Saco ()

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2016, vol. 17, issue 2, No 13, 539-567

Abstract: Abstract Cultural norms embody the communalism and familism that characterize social structures and traditions of care among certain identity groups, notably, Hispanics. In turn, they affect remitting behavior as they do family dynamics thereby extending care transnationally. Using the 2006 Latino National Survey, the largest instrument that captures socioeconomic variables and political perspectives among Hispanics residing in the USA, we constructed a Hispanic identity index that is used to capture the role of cultural norms in remittance behavior. This index is used as an explanatory variable in a logit model for the probability and frequency of remitting money. We find that both the probability and frequency of remitting increase with higher levels of self-defined familism as reflected by the Hispanic index. This effect is stronger among males, renters, foreign-born non-US citizens, and migrants with fewer years of residence in the USA. Incorporating variables such as our Hispanic identity index may shed light on a relatively unexplored area in the field of economics that explains remitting behavior.

Keywords: Migration; Remittances; Familism; Latino studies; Interdisciplinary studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1007/s12134-015-0423-3

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