Pardee-CFLP-Remittances-TF-Report

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Remittances are perceived as playing a major role in improving the livingstandards of migrant-sending households. The first investment that causes animmediate change in the perceived lifestyle is the construction of a new house.This means switching from the traditional Kacha structure (walls made froma mixture of mud or clay and straw) to Pakka houses (with brick or concretewalls). As construction materials can be expensive, Pakka houses confer highersocial status to the household.Better housing also improves The top usages of remittances were found tohealth conditions of the familyas well as builds resilience tion (35 percent), business (28 percent),include investing in real estate and construc-to natural hazards. Thanks to social ceremonies (17 percent), pilgrimagemigration, many households (nine percent), and transport (seven percent).are also able to buy modernappliances for their homes, either obtained from abroad or purchased locally.Obtaining such appliances is associated with increased well-being and exposureto the outside world.Better education for children is another major change resulting from migration.Education is now a priority for the parents, as an educated person is able to gaina good job abroad. Education is considered particularly important for male childrenas they are viewed as more capable migrant workers. However, migrationhas helped improve education of girls too, partially because of local resistance tothe Taliban’s opposition to female education.The possibility of investing more money in social spending is also perceived asa major asset for remittances-receiving households. This has to be understood inthe context of the Pakhtun society, where the principle of hospitality (melmastia)is more than just a matter of politeness, but rather a duty to be fulfilled at anycost. One’s respectability and social status are frequently determined by adherenceto this custom (Lindholm 1996).Only seven percent of the surveyed households reported that remittances hadnot effected significant changes in the lifestyle of the family. However, this maycorrespond to the fraction of migrant households that are not remitting as theyare still paying back the costs of migration. The top usages of remittances werefound to include investing in real estate and construction (35 percent), business(28 percent), social ceremonies (17 percent), pilgrimage (nine percent), and transport(seven percent).Remittance Flows to Post-Conflict States: Perspectives on Human Security and Development 121
Remittances during and after the conflictAs a result of the conflict, more than two million people fled the Swat Valley,Lower Dir, Buner, and Shangla districts. People were forced to leave theirhomes, fields, and livestock in fear of the militants who burnt the ripenedcrops, destroyed orchards, slaughtered the livestock, and damaged fish pondsas well as irrigation canals in almost all areas of Swat district. Some 80 percentof the refugees took shelter with local host families or rented accommodationmostly with money remitted by migrant relatives (Jahangir 2009). As stated bythe chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), AsmaJahangir: “Had the citizens not acted in a prompt and generous way, protectionfor the IDPs 3 would have become virtually impossible.” The reasons for this maybe attributed to the above-mentioned principle of melmastia as well as triballoyalties that may have compelled people in different districts to grant hospitalityto conflict refugees belonging to the same tribe. Mobilization from the locallystrong Awami National Party (ANP) played a role too.Remitted money had a central importance during the active conflict as itremained the most important and sometimes the only supply line to ensure thesurvival of household. Those who had remained, either due to prolonged andcontinued curfews or to harvest the field and the orchards, were facing starvationthat could be avoided only thanks to remittances. In our sample, 74 percentof the respondents reported to having avoided starvation during the conflictthanks to remittances, and nine percent were able to evacuate the family andrent houses in other cities such as Peshawar Abbottabad, Mardan, Rawalpindi,and Islamabad where their children were able to continue their education.In the aftermath of the conflict, remittances constituted a bulwark in thereconstruction of livelihoods for 23 percent of the people surveyed. Most ofthe respondents reported to have used remittances to rebuild their houses.This correlates with recent studies on the Swat crisis, where 59 percent of thereconstruction costs were found to have been borne by the house-owner himself(UNDP 2012). The majority of financing for such houses came from remittancessent by relatives working abroad. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of the peopleof the surveyed areas were working abroad and the money sent by these workersduring the insurgence ensured the survival of their relatives back home(UNDP 2012). The other major supporter of the housing reconstruction was theGovernment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which provided funds to 17 percent of3 Internally displaced persons.122 A Pardee Center Task Force Report | October 2013
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Pardee Center TASK FORCE Report oct
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This series of papers, Pardee Cente
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AcknowledgementsThis Task Force on
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ITU International Telecommunication
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networks and migrant associations i
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to developing countries than other
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But most importantly, remittances a
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often mix in the countries of desti
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According to the World Bank estimat
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Because of its focus on the multidi
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eceiving remittances provides an en
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associations for post-conflict inst
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are proposed to avoid the associate
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Terry, D. 2005. Remittances as a De
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oader approach to post-conflict rem
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networks can be seen as “homogeno
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That personalized nature of hawala
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Customary law (xeer) and other trad
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the world (Lindley 2009, 531). Much
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ize the informal equal efforts to a
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struction and development. Means sh
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opportunities should focus on exist
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2. Dodd-Frank Act and Remittances t
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leadership. Formal payments systems
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and financial institutions. 26 Reso
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closures should be both in English
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issued a new proposed regulation De
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“closed network,” in which all
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Some guidance may be found in the p
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the use of mobile devices for money
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Foreign TaxesUnder the 2012 regulat
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will be available in all cases. CFP
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Section II: Remittances in Post-Con
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Sri Lanka. The conflict also result
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Figure 2: Current Account, Trade Ba
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flows came from migrant workers in
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Informal Remittance Channels in Sri
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tory authorities, with some calls f
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Page 80 and 81: Figure 1: Liberia Per Capita Income
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Page 88 and 89: Remittance Transfers in Sierra Leon
Page 90 and 91: Knowledge RemittanceThe Liberian di
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Page 104 and 105: The Salvadoran Diaspora is very sig
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Page 108 and 109: Figure 2: Transnational Vicious Cyc
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Page 112 and 113: emittance flows is mixed, as initia
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Page 120 and 121: Edwards, Sebastian and I. Igal Mage
Page 122 and 123: y La Distribucion Del Ingreso, 1st
Page 124 and 125: 7. Remittances and Community Resili
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Page 130 and 131: the affected population. Internatio
Page 132 and 133: ReferencesAddleton, J. 1984. The im
Page 134 and 135: 8. Filling the Gap in Health Staffi
Page 136 and 137: The alternative is for donors to se
Page 138 and 139: cians in the U.S. in 2000 (Clemens
Page 141 and 142: 1. Remittances, Financial Inclusion
Page 143 and 144: networks, and communities. The role
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