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Copyright of Marmara University Journal of Political Science / Marmara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Marmara University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the complex impact of both war and migration processes on the demographic and economic situation in Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the conflict that has been going on since 2014 and the migration crisis inherent in it have led to a significant decrease in the population due to large-scale migration flows. It is predicted that by 2050 the population of Ukraine may decrease to 35.2 million people, which will create serious challenges for the economy and social sphere. According to the data provided in the article, the number of remittances from abroad to Ukraine is growing, which indicates the intensive development of migration flows and the growth of the economic contribution of immigrants. However, the actual volume of such remittances is likely to be higher than indicated in official data due to the presence of unregistered flows. Remittances reflect not only migrants’ financial contributions to the economy, but also the level of connection and support that migrants provide to their families and communities in Ukraine. Compared to the inflow of foreign direct investment, an understanding of how migration flows affect the country’s economy both through financial contributions and through other socioeconomic aspects is presented. The article calls for the development of effective strategies to overcome the challenges posed by war and migration processes. Important components of such strategies are ensuring economic growth and social well-being of the population, as well as rational management of migration flows to maximize the positive impact of migration on the economy and society of Ukraine.

This study examines the effect of the nexus between remittances and ecological footprints on environmental sustainability in Africa for 19 African countries between 1990 and 2021. Both the Augmented Mean Group and Common-Correlation Effect Mean Group estimator, show that remittances and economic growth have a positive effect on ecological footprint. More so, there exists bidirectional causality between remittances, economic growth, and ecological footprint while unidirectional causality runs from ecological footprints to foreign direct investment and foreign direct investment to economic growth. To promote environmental sustainability, individual governments, and regional blocs, must ensure the trade-off and prioritization of net-zero emissions goals in Africa to move beyond mere policy documentation and into non-fossil fuel revenue-dependent and strict market regulation on remittances to promote green consumptions and sustainable livelihoods in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a substantial increase in remittances from diaspora communities to their home countries, prompting developing economies to establish and enhance institutional mechanisms. These mechanisms aim to channel and leverage the emotional connections of emigrants to their native lands for economic purposes. This article concentrates on the influence of migrant remittances on the formulation of diaspora policies in Africa. It closely examines two clusters encompassing a total of 8 states recognized as leaders in terms of migrant remittances’ share in GDP and their absolute value, respectively. The article evaluates three primary categories of tools and practices that structure diaspora cooperation: formal institutional means, economic tools, and socio-cultural practices. The research applies a neo-institutional approach, conceiving diaspora policy as a network of interconnected practices across various spheres. By comparing cases within and between these clusters, it demonstrates diverse approaches to developing diaspora cooperation mechanisms. Additionally, the authors outline the most promising pathways for advancing diaspora policies while identifying existing barriers.They advocate for the establishment of distinct platforms for diaspora representation, deepening cooperation between origin and host states, and extending certain diaspora policy mechanisms to subnational and supranational levels. However, the development of diaspora politics in the examined cases is impeded by insufficient resources, weak state institutions, and state reluctance to cede control over their population's interaction with external actors. Despite the prevalent notion that the evolution of diaspora cooperation mechanisms correlates with the volume of migrant remittances, empirical analysis within the African context exposes the explanatory limitations of such a model.

Digital technologies can be a critical channel in boosting economic growth and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. During crises like COVID-19, digitalization can facilitate the reception of remittances from relatives and friends. We analyze the effects of migrant remittances (MRs) on economic growth in ECOWAS countries with a special emphasis on the role of digitalization. The simultaneous equations and the seemingly unrelated regression method are used with data spanning from 1980 to 2017. Findings show that digitization is not a channel for transmitting the effects of MRs on economic growth in ECOWAS countries. However, digitalization constitutes a catalyst of the effects of MRs on economic growth in non-WAEMU countries, while it does not in WAEMU (a sub-regional block of ECOWAS). Nevertheless, remittances contribute to human capital accumulation, investment, and consumption in WAEMU countries. Policies aiming at strengthening digitization are welcome to foster the effect of MRs on countries' economies in ECOWAS, in general, and WAEMU in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the moderating influence of home-country ethnic diversity in the relationship between migrant remittances and new business creation in developing countries. By employing the theories of transaction cost, social network, social identity, and trust, we argue that ethnic diversity is negatively associated with new business creation; nevertheless, it strengthens the positive association between migrant remittances and new business creation in developing countries. We test our hypotheses on 64 developing countries over an 11-year period (2006–2016). This paper contributes to entrepreneurship literature by emphasizing the importance of home-country ethnic diversity in channeling migrants' remittances to new business creation in developing countries. Plain English Summary Ethnic diversity leads to a stronger positive link between remittances and new business creation in developing countries. We show that higher remittance-receiving countries create a higher number of new firms on average. Furthermore, this positive relationship is stronger in countries with ethnically diverse societies. Our results underline the importance of the ethnic structure of the country for entrepreneurship and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the analysis and assessment of the impact of international migration on the economies of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, which are EU Member States, as well as Ukraine due to the geographical proximity and historical similarity with the CEE countries. To achieve this goal, modeling using panel data was chosen, which well approximates the presented data and can be used for further forecasting. The research has found that the GDP per capita of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal depends on the inward and outward migrant remittance flows, the level of average annual wages and labor productivity. Foreign-born employment rate in these countries on average is not very high, and therefore is not a determinant of the economic situation of the studied countries. Ukraine's integration into international migration processes has increased significantly in recent decade, so a separate linear regression model has been created for Ukraine using the OLS method, based on which Ukraine's GDP per capita depends on migrant remittances inflows and outflows along with unemployment. The study also analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the selected economies and existing risks in the context of international migration. Spain, where the unemployment rate among foreigners rose to 15.3%, suffered the most from the coronavirus crisis. In addition, the countries of Central and Southern Europe depend on migrant workers, who are involved in such important sectors as health and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to first determine the effect of remittances from international migrants on the labor supply in Cameroon. On the other hand, we analyze the effect of receiving these funds on the labor supply of members of beneficiary households according to gender and standard of living. We apply the IV-2SLS method on data from the fourth Cameroonian Household Survey carried out in 2014 (ECAM 4), through the consumer choice model of Becker (1965) adapted to the family economy. From this analysis, it follows that in general, there is a negative effect of remittances from international migrants on the labor supply in Cameroon. The funds received lead to a decrease in labor hours for women while a slight increase is observed for men. Looking at household living standards, the results show that the reduction in working hours is localized only in poor and middle households, while no influence is observed in very poor, rich and very rich households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rise in migrant remittances across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the important issues currently dominating economic policy discourse in the region. Given the large volume of remittance flows, it is obvious that they have important positive and negative economic effects on the individual families and economies that receive them. Therefore, this paper critically examines channels through which remittance transfers affect microeconomic and macroeconomic activity, and suggests policy options available to Sub-Saharan African countries in terms of harnessing their development potential. The paper affirms that prospects for remittances to facilitate economic development remain high provided that recipient countries put in place institutional frameworks capable of mitigating the malign effects and enhancing the benign effects of remittances.

Migrant remittances are important to some countries. According to the World Bank, they comprise more than 30% of the GDP of Kyrgyzstan, Tonga, Tajikistan, Haiti and Nepal. Compared to official development aid or foreign direct investment, remittances have lately become a prime income stream for less-developed nations. In this paper, we analyze the net spillover and feedback effects from the consumer demand generated in migrants' home countries. We use World Bank estimates of remittances and the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) for the investigation with so-called 'hypothetical insertion' as the tool of choice. We find that even some developed nations, like the US, likely benefit from remittances (the largest global path for remittances is that from the US to Mexico), but that not all do (e.g. Canada does not). We stop short of making strong policy recommendations. Instead, we suggest that more attention is paid to the veracity of remittance estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of the research of the international migration process in the EU Member States that are destination countries for migrants from many countries including Ukrainians. The study discuses different approaches and methods analyzing migration process and comes to the point that econometric modeling based on panel data analysis is one of the most appropriate and useful tools in case of studying a group of countries, in this paper - the EU Member states. The article investigates economic and social factors that influence inward migration to the destination countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland, which are deeply involved into migration process with the other European countries and non-EU countries, including Ukraine. It is revealed that immigration flows are highly dependent on GDP per capita and income level in the host countries. The results of the analysis have also shown that the role of migration flows in the socio-economic development of the EU and Ukraine is constantly increasing. This is due to both the quantitative increase in the number of recent immigrants in the EU countries and their percentage of total population, as well as to the growing influence of migrant activities on the socio-economic development of countries. At the same time, migrant remittances have a significant impact on economies of home countries. For instance, for Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine the migrant remittances inflows in 2019 exceeded 10% of national GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to an actual problem of labor migration, the study of remittances and their role in the lives of migrant households. Remittances are used in migrant households in Central Asia primarily for the purchase of consumer goods. Since labor migration flows in the region tend to increase, and the volume of remittances increase, it becomes much more urgent to use the remittances not only for consumption, but also for development. To develop the programs on the use of remittances for the development of outcomes in the countries and for the achievement there is a need to study the problem comprehensively: the volumes and methods of transfers, their role in migrant households and national economies.

This paper traces the developmental contribution of migrant remittances sent from South Africa to the Tsholotsho district of Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe. Since the discovery of gold in South Africa, Zimbabweans from this region have been migrating to South Africa to seek employment. In recent times, the culture of migration in Tsholotsho continues to strengthen, as women have also joined this previously male dominated livelihood strategy. Debates on migration and development have often centered on the role of remittances as a key instrument for development in migrant sending countries. Governments and multilateral institutions have also taken up remittances as a policy priority with a keen interest. This study was conducted using a mixed methods approach. A total of 159 participants completed self-administered quantitative questionnaires. In addition, 5 in-depth qualitative interviews with key informants were conducted in Tsholotsho, while 10 in-depth interviews with migrants were conducted in Johannesburg, South Africa. The results of this study show that the majority of migrant remittances are largely used for unproductive consumption. However, there also exists a measure of investment owing to the need to satisfy the surging consumer demands within the local economy. In this paper, results have shown that migrant remittances are a key livelihood factor without which many poor people would be severely vulnerable to poverty and hunger.

Do information flows matter for remittance behavior? We design and implement a randomized control trial to quantitatively assess the role of communication between migrants and their international network on the extent and value of remittance flows. In the experiment, a random sample of 1,500 migrants residing in Ireland was offered the possibility of contacting their networks outside the host country for free over a varying number of months. We find a sizeable positive impact of our intervention on the value of migrant remittances sent. Larger remittance responses are associated with individuals who are employed and earn higher incomes. This evidence is consistent with the idea that the observed increase in remittances is not a consequence of relaxed budget constraints due to subsidized communication costs but rather a likely result of improved information, perhaps due to better migrant control over remittance use, enhanced trust in remittance channels due to experience sharing, or increased remittance recipients' social pressure on migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note focuses on the far-flung Burmese overseas communities, situating them into the wider diaspora literature. Drawing on extant scholarship on refugees, migrants and exiled dissidents of Burmese origin, it presents an original cartography of Burmese diasporic groups dispersed throughout Asia. It explores their migration patterns and tentatively maps out their transnational networks. It seeks to comparatively examine the relationships these polymorphous exiled groups have developed with the homeland. Two research questions have been identified and need further exploration in the context of the post-junta opening that has been observed since 2011: First, what comprises the contribution of the Burmese diaspora to political change and homeland democratization? This has been widely debated over the years. Despite a dynamic transnational activism, there is still little evidence that overseas Burmese have influenced recent domestic political developments. Second and subsequently, how can the Burmese diaspora effectively generate social and economic change back home: by “remitting” or by “returning”? This note argues that Burmese migrant social and financial remittances might prove a more viable instrument to foster development and democratization inside Myanmar in the short term than a mere homecoming of exiles and skilled migrants. This is a preliminary analysis that hopes to encourage further research on Burmese diasporic politics and their potential leverage as “agents of change”.

The transfer of money from migrants to their non-migrant relatives is a key, symbol of the quality and meaning of transnational kinship relations. This article analyses how people in Cape Verde view migrant family members’ economic obligations and it examines the concomitant moral discourse. Through a detailed ethnographic study the article explores how gender and kinship positions interplay with the moral obligation to send remittances, and it also inquires into the differences between rural and urban people’s attitudes towards monetary gifts. Moreover, the importance of the receiver’s status in the local society is discussed and the role of the personal relation between the sender and the receiver. Thus the analysis goes beyond an instrumental and rationalistic approach to remittances, which is common in much research, and explores the significance of this money for emotions and social relations.

This study examines the role of migrants' remittances in developing countries' fertility transition. Employing an unbalanced panel of South Asian countries and controlling for various economic and socio-demographic factors, we find that remittances are significantly associated with a lower number of children born to women of childbearing age. This suggests the remittances' substitution effect to be at play rather than the income effect, and may result from decreased need for children for financing the household's future needs as well as from better access to healthcare and contraceptive methods available to migrant households. Remittances' association with fertility appears to be more important than the transfer of fertility norms from migrants' host countries. The monetary aspects of international migration may therefore be more important for the region's demographic transition than social remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the impact of migrant remittances on receiving households assume that these households act as a unit in receiving remittances and making decisions about their use. Thus, many of these studies use the gender of the household head as a key control variable. This study questions this assumption, using original qualitative and quantitative data on rural-urban migration of women in Ghana to show that gendered social norms of household provisioning influence the intrahousehold flow of remittances. Regression results indicate that migrant women are more likely to send remittances to other women, creating female-centered networks of remittance flows even within male-headed households. The implications of this for intrahousehold resource allocation are explored through an analysis of the impact of the gender of the remitter and recipient on education expenditure. The results show that regardless of the gender of the household head, households in which women are the primary recipient of remittances spend more than twice as much on education as households in which men are the primary recipient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Migration & Ethnic Themes: MET / Migracijske i Etničke Teme is the property of Institut za istrazivanje migracija / Institute for Migration Research (IMIN) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although current researches aim to reveal the migration potential and practice of emigration of Hungarian health professionals, little attention is paid on measurable and descriptive data of their migrant remittance practices. The aim of this study is to present the relating patterns of remittance flows, demonstrating the usage and outcomes of migrant transfers, and investments through the relating literature, drawing especially on Tharmalingham's typology. I conducted a qualitative inquiry by half-structured interviews with Hungarian physicians and nurses employed in Norway in order to analyze their migrant remittance practices according to their social status, network, and motivations. Based on the data, I conclude that migrant remittances have greater impact on social, and economic mobility of the beneficiary family of lower-middle class health professionals, as the narratives showed that they are willing to remit much more than migrants from higher social class. Family-oriented, individual remittances are the most common sorts that are frequently invested in services besides materialized use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, influxes of remittances from overseas workers, mostly sent to families back home, have begun to attract policy and scholarly attention for their potential development impacts. This article seeks to answer the question: What is the development impact of these remittances for the households that receive them with reference to field data from remittance-receiving households in the Philippines. Recognising that different 'development logics' inform different understandings of development, this article analyses field data on migrant remittances with reference to three common sets of development logics: economic development, social development and sustainable livelihoods. It then dialogues and extends these findings with qualitative data on the way remittance-receiving households themselves understand the role of migrant remittances. An anthropological approach brings these different logics into dialogue, illustrating the complexity of households' quest for economic, social and livelihood outcomes, and the need to understand the contexts that influence their ability to meet their development goals at home and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note focuses on the far-flung Burmese overseas communities, situating them into the wider diaspora literature. Drawing on extant scholarship on refugees, migrants and exiled dissidents of Burmese origin, it presents an original cartography of Burmese diasporic groups dispersed throughout Asia. It explores their migration patterns and tentatively maps out their transnational networks. It seeks to comparatively examine the relationships these polymorphous exiled groups have developed with the homeland. Two research questions have been identified and need further exploration in the context of the post-junta opening that has been observed since 2011: First, what comprises the contribution of the Burmese diaspora to political change and homeland democratization? This has been widely debated over the years. Despite a dynamic transnational activism, there is still little evidence that overseas Burmese have influenced recent domestic political developments. Second and subsequently, how can the Burmese diaspora effectively generate social and economic change back home: by "remitting" or by "returning"? This note argues that Burmese migrant social and financial remittances might prove a more viable instrument to foster development and democratization inside Myanmar in the short term than a mere homecoming of exiles and skilled migrants. This is a preliminary analysis that hopes to encourage further research on Burmese diasporic politics and their potential leverage as "agents of change". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]