Migration and Remittances: Typologies and Motivations

• Author: Mark Figueroa
• Pages: 235-257

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MIGRATION AND REMITTANCES

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In seeking to understand remittance flows to the Caribbean and other

global areas, economists have considered various motives including

altruism, co-insurance and risk spreading. Analyses have proceeded at

the macro and the micro levels but the underlying migratory patterns that

connect to different motives have not always been clearly identified. This

article explores a set of typologies that distinguish various migrant

relationships corresponding to different stages in the migration cycle. The

distinctions identified are linked to the motives posited in economic models

for remittance flows with a view to fostering the inclusion of a more

sophisticated understanding of migration within economic analyses of

remittances. The aim is to provide a firmer foundation to guide data

collection, sharpen analysis and improve model building. This should

contribute to better explanations for past increases in remittance flows

and improved forecasts of growth and sustainability.

This article is part of a larger study on the characteristics and significance

of the diaspora for Caribbean economies currently being undertaken by the

Caribbean Diaspora Research Group of the Department of Economics,

University of the West Indies, Mona. So far, our primary focus has been on

remittances.1 In seeking to model remittance flows, economists have made

explicit and/or implicit assumptions concerning the motives of those who

Migration and Remittances:

Typologies and Motivations

MARK FIGUEROA

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FREEDOM AND CONSTRAINT IN CARIBBEAN MIGRATION AND DIASPORA

remit cash and kind to their home country while living abroad. Underlying

the assumptions about motivation are assumptions about the nature of

migration. Yet these assumptions are not always specified. In addition, it

is not clear that models embody a good grasp of the migration experience.

This article delves more deeply into the nature of migration, particularly

as it relates to the Caribbean experience. In this way, it is hoped that we

will be able to develop improved economic models that are able to explain

the patterns of remittance flows that we have observed in the past and to

improve forecasts of their future growth and sustainability.

In the migration literature, there have been many studies that either develop

or utilize typologies. For example, the distinction between migrations: forced

and free has produced a set of typologies and much debate as to the nature of

migrations and the extent to which persons have chosen to, or been forced to

migrate.2 To contextualize my discussion, I give examples of typologies

developed by other authors and show how typologies are derived from the

perspective that drives them. I then discuss the factors that help to determine

a disposition to remit, the motives that have been ascribed to remitters and a

typology of migrant remitters. While not seeking to be exhaustive, I provide

examples of how my categories relate to economic models that are applied to

data on remittance flows.

The development of an appropriate set of typologies with reference to the

migrant relationships that drive remittances must be seen as an iterative process.

As we have sought to model remittance flows, we have found it necessary to

understand the migration process. But typologies are important both for

analysis and data collection. Thus, in designing a national survey to capture

data on remittances it was necessary to develop typologies as a foundation for

question formulation.3 As we collect and analyze more data, this will help us

to refine our typologies leading to further improvements in data collection,

analysis and modelling. In what follows, I identify some of the issues on

which model builders can focus if they have adequately disaggregated data.

These are preliminary steps; other areas are left to be pursued. These include

the refinement of definitions and the creation of data collection strategies

that can support the theoretical distinctions we may wish to make.