Remittances and development: Zimbabwean migrant teachers in South Africa and their impact on their Zimbabwean families

Abstract

This paper contends that the unprecedented migration of Zimbabwean teachers into South Africa has transformed the well-being of their families in Zimbabwe positively. In some cases, poverty at household level has even been alleviated as a result of remittances sent to Zimbabwean households of the Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa. On the strength of human development impacts such as increased household income and consumption, savings and asset accumulation, improved access to health and nutrition and access to better education identified in this research, it is possible to hypothesize that professional Zimbabwean migrant teachers in South Africa who maintain ties with their home country do indeed make a positive contribution to their own families’ and households’ human development needs back home in Zimbabwe