Household Composition, Family Migration, and Community Context: Migrant Remittances in Four Countries^*

Abstract

Objectives. We study migrant remittances among households surveyed in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, testing expectations derived from the new economics of labor migration (NELM) and from the historic‐structural approach. Methods. We applied logistic regression analyses to survey data collected by the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project, focusing on the contrast between Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Results. In Mexico, remittances seem to be associated with the patriarchal traditional family, but in the Dominican Republic we verified the opposite. Receipt of remittances is positively associated with degree of development among Mexican households, but the association is negative in the Dominican Republic. In addition, Mexican remittances are negatively associated with the number of businesses in the local community. Conclusions. In Mexico, as predicted by NELM, the cohesive patriarchal family ensures the flow of remittances as part of a household strategy of risk diversification. Dominican remittances, however, seem to be mostly determined by lack of opportunities and household need.

Acculturation and Self-Rated Health among Latino and Asian Immigrants to the United States

“…We speculate that we may find this pattern for Vietnamese and Cuban immigrants but not for other groups because of the unique incorporation experiences of both groups as political asylees/refugees in the United States, as well as conditions in their countries of origin (Portes and Rumbaut 2001;Portes and Zhou 1993). Alternatively, Mariano Sana and Massey (2005) have suggested that measures of remittances may be inaccurate for Mexican immigrants, who are often able to take money with them on trips to Mexico given its proximity to the United States, so it is possible that our measure of remittances does not truly capture the remitting behavior of Mexican (and other) immigrants. All together, more research on the relationships among country of origin, remittance practices, and health status are needed to clarify this finding.…”

“…Yet, it seems likely that immigrants would benefit from close connections to country-of-origin family and social networks, as these connections are thought to encourage healthy behaviors and social supports that promote physical and mental well-being (Kimbro 2009). For example, previous research, mostly focused on Latino immigrants, has found that foreign-born residents of the United States who remit money to relatives in their respective countries-of-origin tend to be more recent migrants with the strongest personal links back home (DeSipio 2002;Lozano-Ascencio 2005;Sana and Massey 2005). Given this evidence, we would expect that remitting would be a sign of links to the sending country, and, following previous findings of the healthy immigrant effect, we hypothesize that remitting individuals would be likely to have higher levels of self-rated health compared to individuals who do not remit.…”

El Mercado Laboral De Estados Unidos: Efectos Sobre Las Remesas Y El Consumo en México

“…América Latina, África y Asia, se han constituido como las nuevas regiones emisoras de migrantes, y en general su destino se ubica en Estados Unidos, Canadá y la Unión Europea. Como resultado se tiene que dicha migración es acompañada de un incremento de las remesas que se dirigen hacia el país de origen, (Sana y Massey, 2005).…”

Gender and Migration-Driven Changes in Rural Eastern Romania. Migrants’ Perspectives

“…Women's work and their incomes during migration are channelled toward men's families and only little parts (if any) toward women's families of origin. Other scholars (Sana and Massey, 2005) emphasised the role of household organization and its gender relations in shaping economic remittances.…”