International Migrations, Diasporas, and Remittances

Abstract

International migrations, diasporas, and remittances represent significant but poorly understood sources of reordering in contemporary International Political Economy (IPE). International migration patterns, diaspora social formations, and remittance transfers are diverse in their sources, channels, social composition, and social effects, which in relation to the IPE of development, pose unanswered questions and unaddressed policy challenges. These include questionable assumptions/classifications of migrants and the periodic alarms over purported ‘migration crises’, the conflation of ‘migrants’ and ‘diasporas’, and the treatment of the latter as homogenous bounded groups defined primarily by their nationality/ethnicity, and the arbitrary categories used to report remittances. While welcoming the increased attention paid to international migrations, diasporas, and remittances, this chapter cautions against overly optimistic and pessimistic assessments of their ability to produce positive development outcomes.