The effects of migration and remittances on areas of origin

This paper will look at the causes and the financial impact of Palestinian migration. It contains three main sections. The first section will discuss the evolution of Palestinian migration: from forced migration due to the war of Israeli- Arab of 1948 to force/voluntary migration following to declaration of the Palestinian Authority due to Oslo peace declaration between Israel and Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993. The second section, meanwhile, will focus on the causes of decreased of remittances sent by Palestinians abroad to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the exodus of 1948. It was noticed that the remittances from Palestinian workers abroad decreased sharply in the 1990 because of political and economic changes in the Arab region in addition to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The paper finds that, although, the number of immigrants increased, due to the degradation of political and socio-economic situation since the second Intifada in 2000, the volume of remittances still below it is rates in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, the paper will discuss the correlation between decrease of remittances and identity factors in the Palestinian case.

Migration is a natural phenomenon which has been in practice from ages. People migrate from one place to another in search of livelihood and for a better standard of living. In this context, International labour migration provides a good opportunity. There are not enough studies taken up on the subject, in this backdrop, this study grabs the wonderful opportunity of exploring the recently available data of 64th round of National Sample Survey (schedule 10.2) and tries to assess the use of remittances by the receiving household. Results suggest that 55percent of remittances are used for food, followed by debt repayment (18 %), health (7%). Surprisingly, 0.6% households are reported to use the remittances for education. The age has a positive association with sending remittances to their families. Regression analysis shows that variations among states, religion and livelihood opportunity with regard to emigration and utilization of remittances received by the emigrant’s households are also noteworthy. The study finds that there has been considerable impact of remittances provided by emigrants which play a vital life to their families. The study shows that rate of emigration indicate that higher for highest quintiles while the share of sent remittances is greater for lower and lowest quintile.

In North Africa particularly in Tunisia, researchers have highlighted the role of international migration on the development of the country of origin (Fourati, 2009; Khachani, 2004; Nassar, 2005; Labdellaoui, 2009; Haffad, 2006). Through this work we try to contribute to this literature. We attempt to explore data availability in particular population census 2004 in order to answer some research questions still until today not well explored. We try through the analysis developed on return migration to evaluate the participation of migrants in the development of their country of origin. In fact, our work will focus on return migrants in Tunisia, particularly those who have invested. We study their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Many questions are raised: Who are Tunisian return migrants? What are their characteristics? Who are return migrants who have invested in Tunisia? What are the principal regions and activity sectors attracting the returnees’ investors? Using data from Census 2004 we developed descriptive and comparative analyses, taking into account the sex and the region of origin of migrants, and multivariate analyses based on logistic regression to study the probability for the return migrants to develop an investment.

This article embodies the results of the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2011, fifth in the series of comprehensive survey on international migration from Kerala being undertaken by the Centre for Development Studies since 1998 with the financial support from the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA), Government of Kerala and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India.. The 2011 study is based on primary data collected from 15,000 households selected at random by a stratified multistage random sampling technique covering all the 63 taluks.

The number of Kerala emigrants living abroad in 2011 is estimated to be 2.28 million, up from 2.19 million in 2008. The total remittances in Kerala in 2011 were estimated to be Rs. 49,695 crores compared with Rs. 43,288 crores in 2008. Remittances were 31.23 per cent of the state’s net state domestic product (NSDP) Remittances are 1.6 times the revenue receipt of the Kerala Government, 6.2 times what the state gets from the Centre as revenue transfer. It is more than twice the Government’s annual expenditure. It is more than 60 per cent of the state’s public debt.

In India, a reasonable proportion of migrants are originating from the state of Kerala. Although the pattern of migration shows dominance of males, females also constitute a significant section especially in the working age. The present paper, based on primary data collected from six villages in Kerala, focuses upon the remittances, its utilization pattern and socio-economic impact of female migration on migrants and their family. The analysis revealed that more than 90 percent of the migrants sent money to their family. The remittances were used for day to day living, repayment of loans, health care, constructing new houses and education of children. There was a significant increase in the mean standard of living of migrants after migration and the background characteristics, type of work at the destination, frequency of remittances, and any saving as a result of migration showed significant association with the standard of living after migration. Migration has also brought some kind of social impact in the family such as improvement in social life, better autonomy, educational status of the family, health care, shopping, recreation, and life satisfaction. Qualitative data revealed that there were some adverse effects of migration such as divorce, separation, conflicts in sharing of remittances.

The impacts of overseas migration on the rural origins of migrants had been studied much (De Haas et. al 2003; Rwelmira and Kirsten 2003; Marchetta 2011; Mendiola 2006). But situating the place of migration (including internal migration) in rural areas is related to rural folks’ embracing of income diversification. In these areas, agricultural and non-agricultural sources of income and migration are rural residents’ pathways out of poverty.

Rural areas thus have the potential to maximize a resource —overseas remittances— that is just flowing in their places quietly. The challenge therefore is to determine how remittances may feed into rural economic activities but in consideration of the birthplace’s socio-economic (and political) conditions, as well as the area’s overall investment climate.

Given the untapped (and possibly huge) development potentials of overseas remittances, there has been no research tool to ascertain how overseas remittances can be tapped for rural hometown investing.

This study intends to share findings and methodological reflections of a pilot assessment--called the Remittance Investment Climate Analysis of Rural Hometowns (RICART--of how overseas remittances figure out currently and potentially in rural hometown development. This research tool is something other origin countries can replicate.

In Bangladesh population movement is not new but has emerged in new forms and through new processes. The traditional rural to urban migration of adult men seeking a better life, with or without families, is no longer the dominant practice. Short and medium term international labour migration of men from rural areas to a wide range of international destinations is gaining importance in household livelihood strategies. Not only that, the mechanism of migration has altered significantly: the primary mode of using family and kin networks have given way to reliance on commercial recruiters and agents. The new patterns and processes of migration, in particular the distinct characteristics of contemporary migrants, have wellbeing implications on family members left behind, especially women. While the impact of remittances on the household economy (poverty reduction) and on the local and national economies (land market, financial market, balance of payments) are undeniable, and have also received considerable research and policy attention the social impact of migration, some of which are visible and direct, while others are latent and more complex, is not well understood. This paper examines the social impact of male migration on household gender relations and behaviours using both household survey data and qualitative case studies.

Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of international remittances and migration on household welfare in Ethiopia. A subjective (a household’s subjective economic well-being) and objective measures (asset holdings and asset accumulation) to define household welfare. A matching approach is applied to address self-selection, and by exploiting information before and after the households began receiving remittances, the study sheds light on the changes in welfare associated with international migration and remittances. The results reveal that remittances have a significant impact on a welfare variable that has previously not received much attention in the migration literature, namely household subjective economic well-being. In addition, we find that remittances have positive effects on consumer asset accumulation, especially in rural areas, but no effect on productive assets.
Keywords: remittances, migration, Ethiopia, propensity score matching

The linkage between migration and its impact on agriculture has attracted much academic and policy attention. Hence, the objective for the present study is to understand the pattern of farm activities between households with out-migrated males and households with non-migrants and also to test the hypothesis that migration entails more investment in farm activities and also to see whether migration has impact on cereal production or not. Primary data has been collected in rural area of Garhwal, in India. Majority of the households own agricultural land and negligible percentage of the households in the study area have abandoned agriculture. The mean area of agricultural land owned is higher among households with non-migrant husbands than the households with out-migrant husbands. Moreover, the mean land on which farming is done is higher among the former than the latter. It has been found that, people mostly grow cereals and there are certain agriculture related factors that are significantly associated with cereal production like total land use, having bulls, investment etc. Apart from this, investment in agriculture is negatively associated with the perception of future abandonment of agriculture. The agricultural responsibilities and work are now shouldered by the females in the households.

In the recent decades, the issues of elite migration have been considered as a serious problem from political, economical and security perspective. With their immigrations elite take all the educational expenses that have been spent on them to the destination country. This amount comprises a large amount of their countries budget. This phenomenon has been existed in Iran for a long time, but in the recent two decades this process has undergone a rapid pace. The statistics of (International Monetary Fund) have shown that during the recent decade, about 150 to 180 thousand graduated people have gone out of Iran. Considering the rate of population in Iran, this amount causes Iran to be the first among the other countries in the world.
More than 93 percent of these people have chosen United States of America, Canada, Australia, France and Germany as their destinations.
This study analyses this issue in recent decades based on a sociological perspective by using authentic and creditable documents in a descriptive–analytic method. It also considers the effective factors on this phenomenon and the results that it may have on different aspects in Iran.
Keywords: Elite migration, brain drain, drain globalization, Iran