Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Emerging Inequalities in Europe: Poverty and Transnational Migration
- Chapter 2 Capital, Family or Community in Postsocialist Rural Romania: Inequalities and Equalities
- Chapter 3 International Labour Migration, Remittances and Economic Development in Moldova
- Chapter 4 From Street Busking in Switzerland to Meat Factories in the UK: A Comparative Study of Two Roma Migration Networks from Slovakia
- Chapter 5 Transnational Migration of Bulgarian Roma
- Chapter 6 The End of Politics in Romania's Jiu Valley: Global Normalisation and the Reproduction of Inequality
- Chapter 7 Assistance Migrants in Russia: Upsetting the Hierarchies of Transitional Development
- Chapter 8 Contemporary Contexts of European Migration: Concluding Thoughts
- List of Contributors
- Index
Chapter 3 - International Labour Migration, Remittances and Economic Development in Moldova
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Emerging Inequalities in Europe: Poverty and Transnational Migration
- Chapter 2 Capital, Family or Community in Postsocialist Rural Romania: Inequalities and Equalities
- Chapter 3 International Labour Migration, Remittances and Economic Development in Moldova
- Chapter 4 From Street Busking in Switzerland to Meat Factories in the UK: A Comparative Study of Two Roma Migration Networks from Slovakia
- Chapter 5 Transnational Migration of Bulgarian Roma
- Chapter 6 The End of Politics in Romania's Jiu Valley: Global Normalisation and the Reproduction of Inequality
- Chapter 7 Assistance Migrants in Russia: Upsetting the Hierarchies of Transitional Development
- Chapter 8 Contemporary Contexts of European Migration: Concluding Thoughts
- List of Contributors
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Migrant remittances have become an important source of household incomes in many developing and transition economies, helping to lift millions of households out of poverty. At the macroeconomic level, migrant remittances are an important source of foreign exchange earnings for many low- and middle-income countries, rather more stable than direct or portfolio investment and far exceeding development assistance (Arslan et al. 2009).
Nevertheless, scepticism lingers regarding the full welfare effects on households as well as the growth effects at the macroeconomic level. For example, Chami, Fullenkamp and Jahjah (2003) find that countries with large inflows of migrant remittances tended to grow more slowly. Others have argued that remittances may be unstable in the medium run and are likely to decline as migrants establish themselves more firmly in host countries; that very poor households tend not to benefit from remittances because of the high cost of migration; and that emigration by highly educated workers leads to a brain drain (for an overview see Rapoport and Docquier 2005; for recent empirical work see also Beine et al. 2008). By contrast, recent World Bank research emphasises the poverty-reducing effects of additional household income through remittances (World Bank 2006).
This paper sheds light on the impact of international labour migration and migrant remittances on households in Moldova and on the Moldovan economy overall. While important in its own right as home to four million people and a neighbour to the European Union, Moldova is also an instructive case study because remittances have grown to about one third of gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years.
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- Information
- Global Connections and Emerging Inequalities in EuropePerspectives on Poverty and Transnational Migration, pp. 57 - 78Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011