Mediated remittances: transnational economic contributions from second‐generation Filipino Americans

Abstract

In this article, I explore the varying logic of second‐generation Filipino‐Americans' decisions to send economic support to family members in the Philippines. I extend the conceptual framework of remittance scripts to that of second‐generation migrants. I find that second‐generation Filipino Americans rely heavily on their first‐generation migrant parents to mediate both remittance requests and sending. As a result, respondents send what I refer to as ‘mediated remittances’. This type of remittance among second‐generation migrants leads to material, relational, and emotional aspects of a transaction being directed towards both first‐generation migrants, as well as non‐migrant recipients. Furthermore, I discuss the repertoire of scripts that second‐generation migrants employ when refusing the request to remit. Analysis of the emotional milieu associated with decisions to remit or not remit reveals an additional dimension beyond the sender–recipient dyad with the inclusion of a mediator. In doing so, this article sheds light on how second‐generation migrants participate in the transnational social field.

Transnational Families and Neo-Liberal Globalisation: Past, Present and Future

“…In the remittance literature, economists (Agarwal & Horowitz 2002;Lucas & Stark 1985) were the first to draw attention to the quantitative growth of remittances on household welfare in sending countries. Anthropologists followed with fine-grain qualitative studies (summarised in Cohen 2011), which have documented the modus operandi of remittances in different settings with varied structures of intra-familial obligations, beneficiary patterns and rationales for remittance-sending between family members (Gutierrez 2018;Singh 2019). Remittance flows to low-and middle-income countries continued to increase reaching a record-breaking $534bn in 2019, over three times greater than the global flow of foreign aid ($166 bn) (World Bank 2020), testifying to the pro-active agency of millions of people crossing borders to improve their living standards, relative to a shrinking level of western donor aid.…”

Resiliencia de las remesas durante la pandemia de covid-19: una motivación para el regreso de las políticas utilitaristas

“…Este giro metodológico abre un repertorio complejo de dimensiones «materiales, emocionales y relacionales» no sólo para los remitentes sino también para los receptores de las remesas. La investigación empírica basada en la narrativa de las remesas ha sido explorada para el caso de Filipinas (Gutierrez, 2018) y otras regiones.…”