Migration, Remittances, and the Family

Urban-to-rural remittances may be seen as one component of a longer term understanding between a migrant and his family in underdeveloped countries. This understanding may involve many aspects, including education of the migrant, migration itself, coinsurance, and inheritance. The family group as a whole can potentially gain from such arrangements, though the distribution of gains between migrant and home may be a matter of bargaining, and each may be the net beneficiary at different phases. It is precisely this sequencing of gains that helps to render an understanding of the self-enforcing mechanism in addition to any feeling of mutual altruism. An empirical illustration from Botswana demonstrates the validity of this argument. Having been educated by the family, a migrant gains from higher wages but is then expected to repay them. The family gains assurance in undertaking riskier agricultural activities, knowing that the migrant will support them during adverse times, such as drought. Sons remit in the hope of maintaining favor in inheritance.