Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:15:54.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Drivers and Impacts of Family Obligations and Overseas Remittances Practices: A Case Study of Pakistani-Origin Individuals in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2013

Nadia Bashir
Nadia Bashir*
Affiliation:
Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article draws on detailed case studies of Pakistani-origin individuals in the UK to explore the complex and extraordinary financial and practical support they provide to family members within their neighbourhood and to family abroad in Pakistan. The article investigates the practice of remitting and the impact on those remitting funds abroad in the context of the struggles and multiple obligations they face on a daily basis in making ends meet. It is set against the political backdrop of the Conservative Party's ‘Big Society’ and ‘Broken Britain’ agenda, which points to the disintegration of values and duty and obligation in contemporary Britain. Contrary to the standards of ‘selfishness and individualism’, the article argues that religious and cultural values compel individuals to provide unrequited support, which often creates very difficult financial and practical situations, resulting in the need to compromise individuals’ own needs and opportunities.

Keywords

Obligationsupport‘Big Society’remittances
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 177 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agarwal, R. and Horowitz, A. W. (2002) ‘Are international remittances altruism or insurance? Evidence from Guyana using multiple-migrant households’, World Development, 30, 11, 2033–44.Google Scholar
Atkin, K. and Ali, S. (eds.) (2004) Primary Healthcare and South Asian Populations: Meeting the Challenges, Milton Keynes: Radcliffe Medical Press.Google Scholar
Ballard, R. (2002) ‘The South Asian presence in Britain and its transnational connections’, in Singh, H. and Vertovec, S. (eds.), Culture and Economy in the Indian Diaspora, London: Routledge, pp. 197–222.Google Scholar
Ballard, R. (2008) ‘Inside and outside: contrasting perspectives on the dynamics of kinship and marriage in contemporary South Asian transnational networks’, in Grillo, R. (ed.), The Family in Question: Immigrants and Minorities in Multicultural Europe, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 37–70.Google Scholar
Ballard, R. (2009) ‘The dynamics of translocal and transjurisdictional networks: a diasporic perspective’, South Asian Diaspora, 1, 2, 141–66.Google Scholar
Bolognani, M. (2007) ‘The myth of return: dismissal, survival or revival? A Bradford example of transnationalism as a political instrument’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33, 1, 59–76.Google Scholar
Burholt, V. (2004) ‘Transnationalism, economic transfers and families’ ties: intercontinental contacts of older Gujaratis, Punjabis and Sylhetis in Birmingham with families abroad’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27, 5, 800–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conservative Party (2010) The Conservative Manifesto, http://www.general-election-2010.co.uk/2010-general-election-manifestos/Conservative-Party-Manifesto-2010.pdf (accessed 17 November 2011).Google Scholar
Coote, A. (2010) Ten Big Questions about the Big Society, London: New Economics Foundation, http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/ten-big-questions-about-the-big-society (accessed 5 December 2012).Google Scholar
Datta, K., Mcllwaine, C., Wills, J., Evans, Y., Herbert, J. and May, J. (2007) ‘The new development finance or exploiting migrant labour? Remittance sending among low-paid migrant workers in London’, International Development Planning Review, 29, 1, 43–67.Google Scholar
Fontana, A. and Frey, J. H. (1998) ‘Interviewing: the art of science’, in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.), Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, London: Sage, pp. 47–78.Google Scholar
Gardner, K. (1993) ‘Desh-bidesh: Sylheti images of home and away’, Man (N.S), 28, 1–15.Google Scholar
Gardner, K. (1995) Global Migrants, Local Lives: Travel and Transformation in Rural Bangladesh, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Giuliano, P. and Ruiz-Arranz, M. (2009) ‘Remittances, financial development, and growth’, Journal of Development Economics, 90, 1, 144–52.Google Scholar
Hagan-Zanker, J. and Siegel, M. (2007) The Determinants of Remittances: A Review of the Literature, Maastricht: Maastricht University.Google Scholar
Hudson, D. (2008) ‘Developing geographies of financialisation: banking the poor and remittance securitisation’, Contemporary Politics, 14, 3, 315–33.Google Scholar
Katbamna, S., Ahmad, W., Bhakta, P., Baker, R. and Parker, G. (2004) ‘Do they look after their own? Informal support for South Asian carers’, Health and Social Care in Community, 12, 5, 398–406.Google Scholar
Lindley, A. (2009) ‘The early morning phonecall: remittances from a refugee diaspora perspective’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35, 8, 1315–34.Google Scholar
Lucas, R. E. and Stark, O. (1985) ‘Motivations to remit: evidence from Botswana’, The Journal of Political Economy, 93, 5, 901–18.Google Scholar
Mand, K. (2006) Social Capital and Transnational South Asian families: Rituals, Care and Provision, London: London South Bank University.Google Scholar
Molyneux, M. (2002) ‘Gender and the silences of social capital: lessons from Latin America’, Development and Change, 33, 2, 167–88.Google Scholar
Office for National Statistics (2008) Index of Multiple Deprivation (2007), London: Department for Communities and Local Government, http://data.gov.uk/dataset/index_of_multiple_deprivation_imd_2007.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. (2000) Kinship and Continuity, Pakistani Families in Britain, The Netherlands: Harwood Academic Press.Google Scholar
Werbner, P. (1999) ‘What colour ‘success’? Distorting values in studies of ethnic entrepreneurship’, Sociological Review, 47, 3, 548–79.Google Scholar
Zarabozo (2007) ‘The rights of children upon their parents, and the emphasis Islam gives in maintaining good relations with other relatives’, http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/505/ (accessed 9 September 2010).Google Scholar