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For all the above reasons, the exploration of the nature and significanceof remittances requires an in-depth understanding of the flows, meanings,organizing practices and interconnected lifeworlds of migrant and nonmigrantactors. We also need to examine how these interlocking livelihoodarrangements are shaped and reconfigured by the various contexts inwhich they take place. It is important, therefore, not to abstract remittancesfrom the rest of the social fabric. Flows of particular goods and moneyare framed by the values and meanings that are attached to them and bythe nature of their specific transactions (Long and Villarreal 1998). Thisrequires that we enter, once again, into that difficult terrain surroundingthe issue of “commodity” versus “non-commodity” values (Long 1997,226-44; 2001). 25 While economists may continue to insist that goods andcash payments are best understood in relation to market principles andcommodity prices, the social scientist needs to stand his or her groundand argue that an understanding of remittances in the context of migrationand multiple livelihoods necessitates a good grasp of issues of social andcultural embedding.6. ConclusionThis paper has stressed the need for a perspective on migration thataddresses both the multiplicity and interconnectedness of different typesof spatial and geographical movement and livelihoods, as well as thesignificance of transnational processes as enacted and perceived by thesocial actors involved. Underlying such a view are misgivings as to theusefulness of drawing sharp distinctions between types of migration – forexample, between “internal” and “international” or “temporary” and“permanent” movements – since such typologies tend to segment andobscure the kinds of cross-generational relations that link different familybranches and individuals engaged in migratory experiences at differentstages in their lives. Moreover, as the ethnographic vignettes show, thereis no great ontological divide between those living “at home,” or in some“distant city” or “transnational world.” Indeed, their life courses intersectthrough the translocal dynamics of familial reproduction and change. Thisis particularly striking when family groupings are implicated in a diversityof livelihoods or multiple family enterprises. Such modes of translocalityof course play a critical role in shaping both local and transnationaldevelopment processes.5925Here we must acknowledge the extensive anthropological literature on gift exchange and “gifteconomies” in which both commodity and non-commodity values are intimately intertwined. Fora detailed critical assessment of this work and how it relates to the commodification of culture incontemporary societies, see Frow (1997, Chapter 3: “Gift and Commodity”).