Vol. 3, No. 2 (2007): 93–109.
Abstract
Remittances, that is, money migrants send home, are more than double the official aid received by developing countries. International financial institutions and national governments have focused on the growth of remittances, their impact on poverty alleviation and development. In this paper I present a complementary picture from the perspective of the migrants who send money home. I draw on an ongoing qualitative project of family, money and migration in the Indian Diaspora. Migrants send money home because they want to continue to remain part of their families and communities back home. Remittances display this family and community identity to themselves and to others. Remittances thus are family and community threads that intersect across countries in an increasingly global world.
Author’s bio
Supriya Singh graduated from RMIT University, Melbourne, where her research is focused on: user centered design of new technologies; cross cultural design; the sociology of money and methodological issues relating to qualitative research. Supriya jointly leads the project entitled Trust, Privacy, Identity and Security in the Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre (SITCRC), highlighting issues of identity, privacy, trust and security in the use and provision of digital services and technologies.
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