Transnational remittances and state protection of human rights: A case for caution

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of transnational remittance receipts on state respect for human rights, identifying the latter with the CIRI Index of Physical Integrity Rights which aggregates information on disappearances, extrajudicial killings, political imprisonment, and torture. Based on sample of 106 developing economies considered over the period 1981–2011, we find that remittances have a strong negative impact on state respect for physical integrity rights, the results being robust to alternate specifications and estimation methods. Our results underline the need for caution in evaluating the developmental consequences of remittance inflows, especially on institutional quality.

Migrant Remittances and Violent Responses to Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Through their influence on citizens' support for the use of violence in crime fighting, remittances may contribute to civil rights violations that stem from the use of coercion and repression by state and nonstate actors alike (Cruz 2016;Flores-Macías and Zarkin 2019;Muggah 2019;Pérez 2015). The microlevel results also speak to recent work showing that respect for human rights is negatively related to remittance inflows in developing countries (Bang et al 2019;Carneiro and Figueroa 2019).…”

Remittances and homicides in Jamaica

“…And third, remittance recipient individuals are more likely to own guns, whether firearm ownership is legal or not, than that of nonremittance recipients. Although it is not clear whether they themselves engage in criminal activities, these results are in line with some previous findings that remittances and human rights are inversely related, as suggested by Bang et al (2019). Ley et al (2021) used a cross-sectional analysis of 2,453 municipalities in Mexico and came to a similar conclusion that remittance inflow rises the probability of vigilantism.…”