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know where the rest went. Someone comes and asks me formoney and I give it to him. And when I go to buy something,fish, for instance, even if I need only ten rupees worth, I spendfifty or seventy-five rupees, because otherwise, what willthey think – a Gulfan being so miserly. Yes, people generallyincrease prices when they see us. And they know we don’tlike to haggle.Typically, earning money easily and spending it freely are characteristicof the lifestyle of the upper classes who, because of their affluence, areobliged to act as patrons for the poorer and less-fortunate villagers. Thisin turn secures them status and a following. Status is a value that takes onthe greatest significance in a cohesive community. It has to be conferredand recognized by a group, and this is most successfully accomplished insituations where there is a great deal of face-to-face interaction. Largessemay also be distributed to counteract the possibly harmful effects ofenvious neighbors and relatives. All of these social pressures work toprevent migrants from spending their remittances solely on themselves andtheir immediate families; individual acquisitive behavior is constrainedby community demands that stress the importance of sharing some of thewealth with fellow members.Thus, I suggest that economically successful returned migrants from small,rural communities spend their money conspicuously to indicate that ithas been earned easily (which is prestigious), and are also lavish in theirgenerosity to fellow villagers as well as to village causes so that they willbe able to secure community goodwill and a higher social standing. Bothconspicuous consumption and conspicuous generosity involve pronouncedchanges in the lifestyles of the migrants. The building of a large and showyhouse is also of high priority since it is the most visible indicator of thechange in status of the family and will stand as a permanent emblem oftheir success. Migrants proudly display consumer durables brought fromthe foreign country for the same reason. Since material affluence has cometo have virtually universal appeal, it is not surprising that these patterns aremanifested by migrants around the world.194Migrants, by introducing these new patterns of material and social living,are also cultural entrepreneurs of the society. Since the migrant has beenexposed to a more developed society, he or she is regarded as being wordlywiseand thus legitimacy is accorded to the use of the money earned in thismanner to effect changes in the migrant household and in the society atlarge. These changes spread in the society through the “contagion effect.”Even migrants who are not able to earn much as a consequence of the