Remittances and Livelihood Strategies: Improving Household Life Chances

Abstract

Drawing on Weber's (Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. The University of California Press, 1978) notion of ``life chances'', this chapter explains how remittances help individuals and households to manage their livelihoods and respond to changing circumstances. We argue that remittances can dramatically increase ``life chances'' enabling individuals and migrant households to have a share in the economic and cultural goods of their societies. For the majority of migrant households interviewed as part of the research for this book, remittances proved to be a crucial source of livelihood, radically changing the life circumstances of family members. With remittances, households are assured that they have access to three meals a day. Three meals a day is an indicator of the highest chance of living a good life and contributes to stronger social resilience than those who have one or two meals per day. The chapter shows that income from remittances enables family members to provide for their household adequate clothing and other personal items such as mobile phones and household goods. Far from being an unnecessary wastage of scarce resources, the purchase of material goods carries symbolic value for migrant households and communicates to others a sense of ``normality''.