Pardee-CFLP-Remittances-TF-Report

pose a considerable risk towards the inception or continuation of a violent conflict(Sorensen, Van Hear, and Engberg-Pedersen 2003; Collier 2000; Anderson1999). Diaspora remittances in conflict-affected Somalia, for example, have beenknown to contribute to military and political purposes like rebel movements,warring factions, and localized clan conflicts over natural resources, in somecases “helping armed factions and precarious local administrations survive withoutdelivering much to the people” (Lindley 2009, 778). Although the impacts ofremittance transfers differ from one case to another, attention to proper developmentpolicies is crucial: “More thought needs to be given to the extent to whichpolicy interventions can encourage the deployment of transnational activities ina positive direction, such as towards conflict resolution or post-conflict reconstruction”(Sorensen, Van Hear, and Engberg-Pedersen 2003, 27).Forced Migration and Mass Displacement:Implications for RemittancesAlthough economic migration based remittances have received a considerableshare of attention recently, the role and dynamics of remittances in conflictaffectedsettings has remained relatively unexplored. Forced migration is asudden and unplanned event rather than a carefully devised household incomediversification strategy as is often the case with labor migration. The situationsof forced migration, however, are frequently known for heightened remittanceflows: “We often do not recognise that many of the countries where remittancesare most significant owe this largely to mass migration in the wake of recentconflicts and political upheavals—official remittances are 10 percent or moreof GDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Haiti, Lebanon, Nicaragua,and Serbia and Montenegro” (Lindley 2009, 775). Migrant remittances can be acrucial resource for avoiding further displacement: “Those who stay are highlyvulnerable and, more often than not, economically dependent. Conflict tendsto undermine both general economic stability and personal livelihoods. Copingstrategies, where possible, include economic support from relatives who havemigrated” (Fagen and Bump 2006, i).Violent conflict and poverty are interwoven and often contribute to each other.Because of that, boundaries between economic and refugee based migration areoften blurred: “What begins as economic migration may transmute into internaldisplacement or international refugee movements, and conversely, what are originallyrefugee movements may over time develop into other forms of movement”(Sorensen, Van Hear, and Engberg-Pedersen 2003, 14). Different types of refugeesRemittance Flows to Post-Conflict States: Perspectives on Human Security and Development 7