Abstract
South Asia struck people’s attention worldwide in April–May of 2015 when thousands of migrants were stranded in poorly equipped boats in the Indian Ocean because no regional country was willing to receive them. Hundreds washed ashore as others were desperately waiting for aid in this so-called Southeast Asia migrant crisis. Those would-be overseas workers fled in hope of a better life not only for themselves but also for those back home waiting to receive some earnings through remittances. Although nearly one-fourth of global remittances flow to South Asian countries, analysis of its social, economic and political impact on the region is sparse. In fact, remittance flows to South Asian countries are quite resilient and it surprised economists that they did not fall after the 2008 crisis contrary to a worldwide decline of about 6 per cent on average. ‘Migrant Remittances in South Asia: Social, Economic and Political Implications’, edited by Md Mizanur Rahman, Tan Tai Yong and AKM Ahsan Ullah, is, thus, a timely and notable contribution to research on remittances, particularly in the South Asian context. This volume focuses on three main areas of research: theoretical and conceptual developments, remittance transfer systems and developmental implications of remittances on South Asian countries.
After providing a comprehensive overview of the remittance flows in South Asia, the volume covers some conceptual issues and provides detailed information about formal and informal remittance transfer channels. In chapter 1 Mizanur Rahman and L. Kwen Fee argue that ‘examining remittances in aggregate and macro terms diminishes the complexity of the transactions, and their sociological implications for migrants, households and communities’ (p. 35). Thus, the authors encourage researchers to pursue micro-level research employing qualitative methods when studying remittances. Besides, they extensively talk about the challenges in remittances research in developing countries, particularly in South Asia. For example, they maintain that a community perspective that incorporates cultural values into the analysis of the determinants of remittances should be followed.
In chapter 3, Bhupal Singh presents detailed information about transfer costs, efficiency aspects of formal remittance transfer systems in South Asian countries, providing a macro-econometric analysis about the determinants of workers’ remittances in India for the 1975–2013 period. Interestingly, he finds ‘a rapid and complete adjustment to deviation from the long-run path of workers’ remittances within two years, testifying to the long-run stability in remittance inflows to India’ (p. 84). Although the analysis is worthwhile, it lacks an appropriate micro-foundation since the variables incorporated into the regression model are pure macro-variables, such as total remittances from migrants, oil price and so forth. Thus, I suggest readers to interpret the findings of this chapter in light of the analysis of individual behaviours in chapter 5 and chapter 7 of the book.
In chapter 4, Md Mizanur Rahman and Brenda S. A. Yeoh present a thorough analysis of the hundi system, a well-known informal remittances channel observed among Bangladeshi migrants in East and Southeast Asia but also used by other migrant populations in the region. Their analysis, importantly, rebuts the presumption that hundi is mainly used by illegal migrants. Although the authors offer to analyze social infrastructure and the value that this informal channel provides users, a deeper qualitative analysis would be necessary to understand why migrants, especially legal emigrants, prefer to use this informal system even though the costs of formal remittance transfer systems are low in South Asian countries compared to other major source countries of migration.
After providing a useful background about theoretical and methodological issues and of the remittance transfer system, eight very interesting case studies which show, in different contexts and ways, how the development potential of remittances can be leveraged in South Asia and what the socio-cultural dynamics of remittance- sending and receiving are.
In chapter 5, Marta Bivand Erdal presents fieldwork findings covering the social dynamics of remittances from the perspectives of recipients in Pakistan and Punjab. Her analysis demonstrates that remittances do not only have a monetary value but also provides other benefits. This chapter is especially interesting as it shows how remittance-receiving shapes power relations in transnational families and how even the ‘potential’ of receiving remittances created opportunity structures for non-migrants such as investments in small-scale businesses which, in turn, led to upward social mobility.
In chapter 6, a conceptual link between remittances and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development is provided by Rita Afsar. More than 90 per cent of economic establishments in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are argued to be SMEs that significantly contribute to poverty alleviation, employment opportunities and facilitation of export growth. Thus, the positive role of remittance use, savings and SME development by returnee migrants in Bangladesh let Afsar conclude that there is a necessity of policy initiatives to promote inflow of remittances and entrepreneurship development. Her analysis sheds light on the magnitude of SMEs in selected South Asian countries and the amount of remittances flows towards those countries, but it does not let us know the interaction of remittances (and diaspora engagement) and enterprise development as she does not provide the exact empirical relationship between the two. Hence, the empirical evidence provided in section 6.4 of the chapter is not more than descriptive statistics and more research is needed to understand this interesting and important relationship between remittance flows and SME development in the country of origin.
Chapter 7 attempts to understand resilience in remittance flows to South Asia, Bangladesh in particular, even during the recent economic crisis of 2008 by focusing on explaining the factors behind motivations of first-generation male Bangladeshi Muslim migrants in New York. Natacha Stevanovic-Fenn, the author, argues that the utilitarian models of remittance-sending behaviour are not sufficient in understanding the resilience in the context she analyzes. She suggests that ‘this economic-minded focus hinders the ability to recognize remittances as a sui generis phenomenon—not of migration but one of norms, values, beliefs, symbols, and practices of the person who sends them and the person who receives them’ (p. 169). Thus, not only economic necessities but also moral principles and what reference networks (recipients, communities at home and abroad) expect of migrants shapes the unwavering motivation of remittance-sending. Providing various narratives that show how, in addition to moral principles, family relations and gender norms motivate Bangladeshi men to send remittances even when experiencing financial distress, this chapter is indeed very successful in demonstrating that every number in remittance statistics represents a unique story and quantitative analyses of remittance practice, and motivations for continuity should be complemented by sharp, qualitative research.
In line with the suggestions of the editors in the Introduction, Chapter 8 provides a sociological perspective on remittances. Vani S. Kulkarni, in this chapter, provides a review of the sources and channels of internal and international remittances in India and discusses the literature about the role of these two types of remittances on the social and economic development of origin countries. Further and more importantly, she offers a sociological perspective on remittances suggesting that the existing literature is sparse in its coverage of non-economic and social dimensions. She argues that ‘remittances produce a connection between the individual with the collective, the micro with the macro, the agency with the structure, and the local with the global’ (p. 204) and discusses the remittance experiences of India to show the embeddedness of the local and the global, highlighting the importance of the dynamic cultural character of the local in the global. She exemplifies the multidimensionality of remittances, for instance, arguing that the reasons for the persistence of remittance transfers during the recent economic crisis should not only be understood through an economic lens, but that cultural values or moral responsibilities should be drawn in to help develop a more comprehensive understanding. Finally, she suggests that the sociology of globalization of remittances should be considered in policymaking if the aim is to enhance the benefits of remittances.
There is now an extended literature about the role of immigration in changing norms and behaviours in the source countries, especially after Levitt (1998) coined the term ‘social remittances’. In chapter 10, Mazhar Mughal and Amar Anwar provide evidence on the impact of remittances on fertility behaviour in Pakistan. The data they use (Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey) do not allow them to incorporate migration related variables and, thus, they are unable to separate the effect of migration on norm transfer with the impact of remittances. While not handling the selectivity problem (as their data do not include information about the migrants themselves), a statistically significant negative relationship between the incidence of receiving remittance and the probability of being pregnant should be noted but interpreted with caution.
In chapter 11, Puja Guha introduces an umbrella term, ‘private giving’, to cover all types of remittances namely household-level remittances, financial help/gifts and philanthropic donations by migrants and discusses their contribution to development in Central Gujarat using findings from a survey. Interestingly, her descriptive analysis shows that although remittances are sent by a large proportion of migrants, the total amount of philanthropic donations exceeds far more than other remittance forms. Since those donations are often targeted towards specific sectors, their role in economic development is significant and in-depth research is needed to fully understand the dynamics. This will also enable policymakers to act accordingly if they would like to see a more direct impact on development.
This volume, conclusively, can be regarded as an important contribution by developing the theoretical and conceptual framework of remittances. All said, a quantitative-oriented reader might be disappointed as the book leans more towards the sociological aspects of remittances and lacks empirical analysis of social, economic or political effects of remittance flows to the region, with the exception of two chapters. Rather, mostly descriptive and exploratory studies are included in this volume. As the editors state in the introduction section, their definition of ‘development’ is not merely investment- or economics-oriented but rather a broader view in line with the Amartya Sen’s (1999) ‘capability approach’. Thus, this volume aims to focus on the role of remittances not only in terms of economic well-being but also through social and political capability enhancements. There are some other drawbacks. An important weakness is repetition among chapters with several providing similar introductions about the general remittance behaviour in South Asia although, for example, concepts such as costs and channels of remittances are already covered in the introduction. Besides, I believe the book could have been more carefully edited since there are remaining errors including lack of consistency in referencing across chapters and grammatical mistakes in multiple chapters. In addition, there are factual errors: on page 21, it is suggested that one of the findings of chapter 10 is a 26 per cent decline in fertility among remittance-recipient households but the same correlation is reported as 17 per cent (p. 248) in the same chapter itself. Another drawback of the book is its focus on South Asian emigration to Western countries while neglecting other major cases such as South Asian migrants in the Persian Gulf and seasonal migrants. Saying this, even though the lack of adequate empirical depth and poor editing weakens the book’s contribution, I believe and agree with the editors that the volume’s conceptual and exploratory chapters will be offering a guide for the future academic and policy researches on the topic, especially for South Asia, since the existing literature on the region is more focused on economics of remittances. Although not a pioneer, this book surely contributes to our knowledge of the sociology/anthropology of remittances.