Remittance Motivations and Practices:

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Remittance Motivations and Practices

• A Study of Guyanese, Haitians and Jamaicans in
  Canada
• Alan Simmons Dwaine Plaza
• Paper presented to the workshop on
• Lives and Livelihoods Economic and Demographic
  Change in
• Modern Latin America
• University of Guelph, May 26-27, 2006

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• Preliminary findings!
• Do not cite, quote or reproduce without
  permission from the authors!

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Map of the Presentation

• 1. Goals of the Research
• 2. Background immigration and settlement
• 3. Model of Household Remittance Flows
• 4. Data and Findings
• 5. Conclusions

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1. Goals of the Research

• How much is remitted? In what form?
• To whom? For what goals?
• Through what channels? With what transfer costs?
• Motives characteristics of the senders?

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2. Background

• Immigration levels over time
• Settlement patterns in Canada
• Macro estimates of national remittance receipts
  over time (inflows from all sources)

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Guyanese in Toronto
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Haitians in Montreal
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Jamaicans in Toronto
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El Salvador
Guatemala
Jamaica
Haiti
Honduras
Guyana
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3. Transnational Remittance Model
Resources Motivations
Outcomes for Senders
Channels and Barriers
Amounts Remitted
Outcomes for Recipients
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4. Data Findings

• Survey design
• Characteristics of survey respondents
• Estimates of remittances sent (by households and
  individuals, 2005)
• Channels and transfer cost
• How remittances are used
• Correlates of sending behavior

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Survey Design

• Criterion sample of individuals
• Born in Haiti (Montreal) Guyanese (Toronto) and
  Jamaica (Toronto)
• Eighteen years of age or over
• Living in Canada for at least one year
• Knowledgeable of household expenditures
• Both males and females, at all income and
  schooling levels
• In different parts of each city

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Questionnaire

• Individual level
• Household level
• Monetary remittances
• Goods (via barrel, etc.)
• Collective-institutional transfers
• Measures of transnational links

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Respondents Characteristics
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Amounts Sent
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Destination of Funds Remitted
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Intended Purposes of Funds Sent
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Number of People Benefiting
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Main Recipients (percents)
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Money Transfer Channels
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Transfer Costs
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Barrels Sent to Home Country
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Content of Barrel Sent Home
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Who sends remittances?

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Total Household Remittances in 2004 by Household
Income Category
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Transnational Family Contacts
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Mean Remittances Sent Controlling for Telephone
Contact
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Involvement in Transnational Projects
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Feelings about demands placed by Transnational
family
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Policy Oriented Conclusions

• Reduce transfer fees expand financial services
• Tax exemption for remitters
• State provision of matching funds to remittance
  receivers
• Strengthen TN community links

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Future Research Questions

• Are remittance flows shaped by
• Remittance fatigue?
• Second generation?
• Shifting centre of the transnational community?
• Transnational identity?
• Return migration plans?
• Etc.

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• END

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Acknowledgements

• Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA),
  for project financing
• Centre for Research on Latin America and the
  Caribbean, York University, for institutional
  support.
• Centre DÉtudes Ethniques des Universités
  Montréalaises (CEETUM) and the Département de
  démographie, Université de Montréal, for support
  and collaboration.

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For further details

• Alan Simmons, CERLAC, York University
• asimmons_at_yorku.ca
• Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State U., Corvallis.
  dplaza_at_oregonstate.edu