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Session Type: Panel

Theme: 3. Prosperity, the Pains of Growth and its Governance
Panel

Remittances and the Linked Lives of Migrants and their Families

Tuesday, July 30, 2024
09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
Location: ASEEC Tower, A9.03

Labour migration is an individual and family economic strategy to survive and in the longer term, to prosper.  Not all migration is created equal, and different characteristics of migration influence the ability of migrants and their families to achieve their longer-term goals. For example, a significant share of migration from and within Asia is comprised of fixed-term contracts which are renewable, yet explicitly exclude the possibility of permanent migration and family co-residence in migrant destinations.  This gives rise to transnational families who may spend decades living apart to fulfil the family aspirations.  And, indeed, the migrant remittances generated from these excursions are an engine of growth for many lower- and middle- income countries providing essential and aspirational resources supporting families who stay behind.  These remittances form a fundamental part of the linkages between migrants and their families left behind in the origin countries.

In addition to financial remittances, migrants also transmit social remittances, what Levitt (1998) classically coined as “migration-driven cultural diffusion”.   Normative values around family reciprocity including financial and social obligations reflect some commonalities across diverse Southeast Asian cultures, incapsulated by the concepts of gotong rojong in Indonesian Bahasa and utang na loob in Filipino Tagalog, reflecting the complexity and nuance of these obligations within the region.

This panel explores the dynamics of diverse exchanges which circulate among Indonesian and Filipino migrants and their families at home. Drawing on the additional concept of linked lives further captures the how geographically dispersed migrants, and their families are influenced by the dynamic interactions within and between the spatial and temporal structures which condition their daily transnational lives. Data is primarily drawn from the Child Health and Migrant Parents in Southeast Asia (CHAMPSEA), with additional sub-studies of migrants in Asian destinations, including Singapore, to offer unique perspectives on the Linked Lives of transnational families.

The set of papers seeks to explore the following overarching questions:

1) How is material wealth accumulated over the years of transnational family householding? What are the goals of migrant financial remittances, how are they used by the migrants and their families, and how do migrants monitor their use?

2) How do migrants conceive of and transmit social remittances to their families who stay behind in the origin countries?

3) How do remittances facilitate building and maintaining connection across geographically dispersed and linked lives of migrants and their families? 

Presentations:

  • 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
    The Search for Prosperity among Transnational Families in East and West Java

    Presenter: Lucy P. Jordan – University of Hong Kong

    Co-Presenter: Sukamdi Sukamdi – Universitas Gadjah Mada

  • 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
    Interconnected Futures: Migration among the Constellation of Aspirations of Young Adults in the Philippines

    Presenter: Han Zhang – University of Hong Kong

    Co-Presenter: Eunice Tejada – Scalabrini Migration Center

    Co-Author: Maruja M.B. Asis – Scalabrini Migration Center

  • 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
    The Linked Lives of Transnational Families: Migrant Parents, Remittances, and the Education of Children in Indonesia

    Presenter: Xiaochen Zhou – University of Hong Kong

  • 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
    The Rhetoric of ‘Blessedness’: Migrant Domestic Workers and Transnational Social Protection Chains in Pandemic Times

    Presenter: Kristel Acedera – Asia Research Institute - National University of Singapore