International Migration and Aspirations among Young People: Who Desires to Migrate?

The dispatch of migrant workers from Indonesia is still quite high. Efforts to improve socio- economic status are still motivated by high rates of migration. Children left by migrant parents experience a greater emotional burden due to parenting issues. This study attempts to examine the aspirations of children and adolescents left by migrant parents based on data from the Child Health and Migrant Parents in South East Asia (CHAMPSEA) study. Analytical descriptive was used to describe children’s aspirations towards migrations on migrant and non-migrant households. This study found that children gave a bad perception when mothers had to migrate. Emotional closeness between children and mothers makes the children feel sad when being left by parents. However, once the children’s desire to migrate, especially in the ‘young adult’ group of children is precisely high. Having seen by sex, boys have a higher desire to migrate than women.

Remittances as Rents in a Guatemalan Town: Debt, Asylum, the U.S. Job Market, and Vulnerability to Human Trafficking

Exporting labor to the United States has become the principal industry of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Central Americans have been moving to the United States in large numbers since the 1980s, but how they gain entry has shifted thanks to the interplay between the migration industry and border enforcement. Many Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans are paying smugglers to deliver them to U.S. border agents so they can apply for asylum. The Trump administration’s harsh reactions have energized asylum advocates, who argue that applicants are fleeing dislocation by neoliberal capitalism. Migrant households in the Ixil Maya municipio of Nebaj, Guatemala, express an optimistic interpretation of this situation that they call their American Dream. Their wish for high wages in the United States can be seen as the latest in a series of “hope machines” that interpret disadvantageous relations of exchange as the path to a better future. Such hopes are based on the irrefutable buying power of the dollar, but migrant remittances to their families conceal the extraction of rents. U.S. asylum advocates understandably stress that the most important challenge facing irregular immigrants is their legal status. However, with or without legal status, the underlying issue for migrants will continue to be their position in the U.S. job market, because this generates household indebtedness that increases vulnerability to human trafficking. La exportación de mano de obra a los Estados Unidos se ha convertido en la principal industria de Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras. Los centroamericanos se han estado mudando a los Estados Unidos en grandes cantidades desde la década de 1980, pero la forma en la que obtienen la entrada ha cambiado gracias a la interacción entre la industria de la migración y la industria de la deportación. Muchos guatemaltecos, hondureños y salvadoreños pagan a coyotes para que los entreguen a agentes fronterizos de Estados Unidos, pudiendo así puedan solicitar asilo. Las duras reacciones de la administración Trump han energizado a los defensores del asilo, quienes argumentan que los solicitantes están huyendo de la dislocación causada por el capitalismo neoliberal. Los migrantes en el municipio ixil maya de Nebaj, Guatemala, tienen una interpretación optimista de esta situación, la cual llaman su Sueño americano. Su deseo de salarios altos en Los Estados Unidos puede ser visto como la última en una serie de “máquinas de esperanza” que interpretan las desventajosas relaciones de intercambio como el camino hacia un futuro mejor. Dichas esperanzas se basan en el irrefutable poder adquisitivo del dólar, pero las remesas de los migrantes a sus familias ocultan la extracción de rentas. Los defensores del asilo en Estados Unidos enfatizan, comprensiblemente, que el desafío más importante que enfrentan los inmigrantes irregulares es su estatus legal. Sin embargo, con o sin estatus legal, el problema subyacente para los migrantes seguirá siendo su posición en el mercado laboral estadunidense, ya que esto genera el endeudamiento de los hogares e incrementa su vulnerabilidad a la trata de personas.

The Effects of youth rural-urban migration on the socio-economic aspects of migrant-sending rural households; the case of Yaya Gulale woreda

Youth migration is becoming a world-wide pandemic. In developing countries like Ethiopia rural-urban migration is continuing to occur at high levels as people seek new opportunities in the city to escape from rural poverty. Young people leave their villages and even their countries because of the limited potential for development inside their community. The effects of this exodus of youth can simultaneously affects development in both urban and rural areas. To this end, this study was conducted to assess the effects of youth rural-urban migration on the socio-economic aspects of migrant sending rural households. In order to generate extensive data, the study was employed cross-sectional qualitative research design. Study participants were selected via purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Both primary and secondary data were employed; in-depth interview, key informant interview and focus group discussion were used to collect the first hand information from study participants. Data generated through different data collection instruments triangulated for their reliability and validity purpose and analyzed by using thematic analysis. Finding from this study reveals that youth rural-urban migration is a burden as well as opportunity for migrant sending rural households. Hence, the out flows of economically active people from rural agricultural sector reduce the availability labor force migrant households are experiencing shortage of labor which adversely affects their productivity. Moreover, rural youth migration put the life of rural elderly parents at risky as much as it takes away the care givers thereby exposes them for loneliness and depression. On the other side, youth rural outmigration is an opportunity for migrant sending households as much as the money sent back from migrants helped family left behind in improving their livelihood. It is recommended that in order to minimize the rate of rural youth migration social amenities should be provided by government and awareness should be given for migrant households on the best use of remittance to maximize its long-term benefits.

Diaspora engagement policies and transnational financialisation in Colombia

Although the debate on the migration–remittances–development nexus in Latin America has advanced considerably in recent years, the literature has yet to analyse the socio-political implications of the process of Financialisation of Remittances (FOR) in the region. This paper sheds light on the relationship between the FOR and diaspora engagement policies in Colombia, thus contributing to a growing body of critical analyses on diasporas as agents of development and processes of financialisation beyond the global north. Since the turn of this century, Colombian governments have invested in consolidating part of the state apparatus to capture and maintain the diaspora and their resources connected to the motherland. The paper uses a case study approach centred on a systematic examination of the political–institutional apparatus developed to engage the diaspora and financialise remittances in Colombia over the past 20 years, incorporating a temporal and historical perspective of the triad migration–development–financialisation trends at the national level. It argues that the FOR is a centrepiece of the state's broader strategy for the symbolic and material redefinition of (transnational) membership, in which both, embracing – by extending social and political rights – and tapping – into migrant households’ connections to global circuits of capital and finance – elements co-exist This case is illustrative of how a growing number of states are adopting models of diaspora engagement that, on the one hand, feed into the dominant financialised model of development; and on the other, serve as an instrumental strategy in the emerging architecture of the global governance of migration.

The inflow of Foreign Remittances in Rural Punjab: The Determinants

In this paper, an attempt was made to analyze two issues relating to the inflow of remittances in the migrant households of rural Punjab. Firstly, the distribution pattern of remittances receiving migrant households as the volume of per household remittances. Secondly, causes of receiving different volumes of remittances by households. The results showed that in short to medium periods, remittances remained a stable and significant source of migrant’s household income. In the long term, as more migrants get legal status in the destination country, or their families join them, build their own houses, or start their businesses, they may revise their portfolio choice. The study also found that the high per capita domestic income of the migrant households back at home and the increased stay of the migrants in the destination countries negatively impact the inflow of households remittances. However, there was a positive relationship between the inflow of per household remittances and the number of family migrants abroad. Similarly, illegal migrants send more remittances than legal migrants. The migrants in developed countries send more remittances than migrants of developing countries. The study also found that altruism predominates as more remittances were received from children and spouses than other relatives. Keywords: Emigrants, illegal migrants, legal migrants, migrant households, remittances. JEL Codes: C32, F24, P16, R23

Gender differentials in poverty among migrants in rural border communities of Oyo state, Nigeria

The study examined relative poverty among migrant men and women in rural border communities of the Oyo State. Three rural border settlements were randomly selected in Atisbo and Saki-west Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Oyo State. Two hundred and four (204) questionnaires were administered to the father and mother in 102 migrant households and 198 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the study revealed that women have a higher poverty level than men. Also, the Principal Component Analysis revealed that the high loadings of factors on component one (Dwelling Conditions), for both men and women, imply inadequate living conditions. This indicates the need for improved dwelling conditions for the migrants and also the need to focus on gender-based poverty interventions especially among females, as they are more affected by poverty.

Remittances and the financial capabilities of migrant households in the Philippines

This exploratory mixed methods study sought to determine the financial capabilities of remittance-receiving households from two rural municipalities in the Philippines: San Nicolas in Ilocos Norte province and Moncada in Tarlac province. The broader concept of financial capabilities not only looks at people’s financial literacy but also their financial inclusion (access to financial products) and financial functionings (actions on finance). Quantitative household surveys and qualitative data gathering methods that fall under a rapid qualitative inquiry (RQI) design were employed. Results and findings show that more remittance households from San Nicolas saved, invested, and did business in their hometown compared to counterpart migrant household respondents from Moncada. Differences in migrant households’ levels of financial literacy, as well as the geographic make-up and economic activities of the two municipalities, may help explain why one municipality had more migrant investors, savers, and entrepreneurs over the other.

Migration, Rural–Urban Connectivity, and Food Remittances in Kenya

This paper draws on data from a representative city-wide household food security survey of Nairobi conducted in 2017 to examine the importance of food remitting to households in contemporary Nairobi. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the urbanization and rapid growth of Nairobi, which has led to growing socio-economic inequality, precarious livelihoods for the majority, and growing food insecurity, as context for the more detailed empirical analysis of food security and food remittances that follows. It is followed by a description of the survey methodology and sections analyzing the differences between migrant and non-migrant households in Nairobi. Attention then turns to the phenomenon of food remitting, showing that over 50% of surveyed households in the city had received food remittances in the previous year. The paper then uses multivariate logistic regression to identify the relationship between Nairobi household characteristics and the probability of receiving food remittances from rural areas. The findings suggest that there are exceptions to the standard migration and poverty-driven explanatory model of the drivers of rural–urban food remitting and that greater attention should be paid to other motivations for maintaining rural–urban connectivity in Africa.