Remittances and the Changing Composition of Migration

Abstract

Remittances are seen as a sustainable source of funding for developing countries. During recent decades, the level of remittances has increased dramatically, and the recent financial crisis has scarcely affected the trend. In the same period, the structure of international migration flows has changed. These flows are now characterised by a growing feminisation and by increasing skill levels. In this paper, we establish a link between these two facts and assess the effect of the change in the structure of migration on the level of remittances. We use a recent data set on bilateral remittances and estimate a gravity model in which the gender and education background of migration flows are accounted for. We find that remittances are positively associated with the share of female and college‐educated migrants. In particular, we argue that the rising share of college‐educated women has had a significant impact on the increase in remittances.

More distance, more remittance? Remitting behavior, travel cost, and the size of the informal channel

“…This indicator is highly significant across all specifications. The literature to date has devoted insufficient attention to the role of gender differences in migrants' remitting behavior, with some notable exceptions such as Tacoli (), Cortes (), and Le Goff and Salomone (). A higher value of this regressor signals a more skewed gender distribution or, in other words, a smaller number of complete families, all else being equal.…”

Why do migrants remit?

“…Remittances towards developed countries are not the primary interest of this paper; instead, the main incentives of remitting money to all countries and developing countries are explored. During recent years, different aspects of remittances towards developing countries have been under scrutiny of researchers, such as the growth impact of remittance (Barajas, Chami, Fullenkamp, Gapen, & Montiel, ; Giuliano & Ruiz‐Arranz, ; Rao & Hassan, ); the impact of remittances on poverty and inequality (Adams & Page, ; Acosta, Calderon, Fajnzylber, & Lopez, ); the impact of remittances on financial development (Aggarwal, Demirg‐Kunt, & Peria, ; Brown, Carmignani, & Fayad, ); the impact of remittances on current account (Hassan & Holmes, ); remittances and business ownership (Amuedo‐Dorantes & Pozo, ); remittances and financial access (Ambrosius, ); and the impact of education and gender on remittances (Cooray, ; Le Goff & Salomone, ). However, this paper focuses on the main determinants of remittances and more specifically the motivations behind remittances.…”

Feminization of migration and trends in remittances

“…In a recent paper, new data were used that show international migration and include remittances from 89 remittance-sending countries to 46 remittancerecipient ones, over the period 1985−2005. The objective was to investigate whether changes in the gender and education level of international migrants affect the amount of remittances [8]. Results point to a positive correlation between the share of female migrants and the amount of remittances home countries received.…”

“…Previous work of the author (together with Sara Salomone) contains a larger number of background references for the material presented here and has been used intensively in all major parts of this article [8].…”