No 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.
AcknowledgementThis Article was published by Librello, Social Inclusion's former publisher. About the JournalSocial Inclusion is a peer-reviewed open access journal which provides academics and policy-makers with a forum to discuss and promote a more socially inclusive society. The journal encourages researchers to publish their results on topics concerning social and cultural cohesiveness, marginalized social groups, social stratification, minority-majority interaction, cultural diversity, national identity, and core-periphery relations, while making significant contributions to the understanding and enhancement of social inclusion worldwide. Abstract: This paper analyzes the financial support and inclusiveness within Hispanic families in New London, Connecticut, and the causes of their social exclusion in the larger society. We designed and administered a survey of 114 items that was answered by 148 participants representing 1.3% of the non-Puerto Rican Hispanic population. Using factor analysis, we reduced a large number of items in two familism scores to four latent factors: "Financial Support for Family", "Obligation to Family", "Plan to Return", and "Filial Responsibility". We found that financial support for family and obligation to family are strongly endorsed by participants. Approximately one-half would return back to their home countries where they believe to be happier. One-fifth rejects this option. Three-quarters of participants remit money to family, parents in particular, who reside in countries of origin. In contrast to other studies, remitting money is not affected by any given personal characteristic such as gender, income or level of education. Similarly, participants remit irrespective of their degree of self-reported familism measured by scores on the latent factors. A large incidence of poverty among this population, lack of English proficiency, low skills, immigration status, and a lack of voice and political representation inhibit their social inclusion. www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion Editor-in-Chief
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