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itself). While research and analysis <strong>of</strong> the connections between internaland international remittances seems important for understanding how labormigration affects development, whether understandings <strong>of</strong> other forms <strong>of</strong>migration and resource transfers can equally benefit from being framedwithin the same geographic spheres and levels <strong>of</strong> social organization isnot entirely obvious. The combined findings <strong>of</strong> the chapters in <strong>this</strong> volumesuggest that exploring these possibilities could be <strong>of</strong> benefit to policymakersin promoting development.Development is <strong>of</strong>ten referred to in terms <strong>of</strong> “hard” economic measuressuch as income growth and increases in GNP, but a broader understanding<strong>of</strong> development that goes beyond growth rates is needed to get at otherimportant issues, including how migration can contribute to povertyalleviation, the stability <strong>of</strong> poor families, or the sustainability <strong>of</strong> vulnerablecommunities. In fact, the implications <strong>of</strong> increases in income for economicinequality and growth can be quite different, depending on whether theyare viewed within communities, across rural–urban regions, or within anational aggregate. Such issues require consideration not only <strong>of</strong> the aspects<strong>of</strong> well-being that can be measured in monetary terms, but also in terms<strong>of</strong> access to goods and services ranging from bank credit to healthcare andeducation or to opportunities for employment.In the end, one might argue, changes in the nature <strong>of</strong> production and theengagement <strong>of</strong> labor almost always involve some kind <strong>of</strong> movement <strong>of</strong>people, and the scope <strong>of</strong> our definitions <strong>of</strong> both migration and development,and our interpretation <strong>of</strong> the relationship between them, must depend on theparticular problem to be investigated and the boundaries and borders thatbecome meaningful in that context. Nonetheless, the essays in <strong>this</strong> volumehave confirmed, in different ways, that bridging the division typically madein research and policymaking between internal and international migrationcan be helpful in revealing the links and commonalities between the twotypes <strong>of</strong> migration and their implications for development.367

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