Transnationalism and Migration - Essay Example

Transnational families and the effect of migration on their areas of origin Name Institution Date Course Transnationalism Introduction Transnationalism is a general term that centres on connections, practices and exchanges across borders, therefore transcending the national space as the main reference point for identities and activities (IDM, 2010). Migration has resulted to groups of people who feel connected to several places at the same time. The life of migrants has thus been characterised by multi-sited lives that has encouraged interactions and exchanges across borders, the exchanges taking the form of values, practices and ideas as well as economic contributions and political mobilization. According to Waldinger & Fitzgerald (2004), migrants will always feel connectivity between their destination and source, but the networks they cause generates a multiplicity of imagined communities that are organised along different and sometimes conflicting principles. International migrants have repeatedly involved in concerted action across nation boundaries with their descendants, but the form, mobilization and use of the connections are contingent outcomes coming as a result of several political constraints (Waldinger & Fitzgerald, 2004). Researchers have continued to investigate the form of these connections and have observed that the migrations produce a plethora of connections that span home and host societies and they have proclaimed the emergence of the transnational communities. Transnational families and the effect of migration on their areas of origin The rising interest in this subject does not only arise from the established communication links between the here (destination) and their (origin), but from the fact that these communities have demonstrated far more scale, relative intensity as well as social determinants of their transnational political engagements (Guarnizo et al, 2003). Research has demonstrated existence of a stable and significant transnational platform of political action that connects the immigrants with their polities of origin. The transnational connections affect several nations and will often be generated by human migration from below. The subject therefore presents a great variety of research targets that have been investigated to provide more understanding on these communities. A deeper understanding of the migration of men and women helps scholars and other concerned parties get insight into the reasons for the international flows of the people as well as their complex interrelationship with development. Women have increasingly participated in these migrations that were primarily dominated by men. The recent past indications showed that about half of the immigrants were women (Martin, 2003). Although many women would accompany family members, recent trends have shown that women are increasingly migrating on their own. Most of them move voluntarily, although a good number are involuntarily forced to flee as a result of persecution, natural disasters, conflict, environmental degradation and other occurrences that affect their livelihood (Martin, 2003). Women’s mobility affects the role played by both male and female migrants, the families they leave behind and the source and destination communities as well as countries of migrants (Martin, 2003). Migration of women particularly, within and from developing countries, affects the development process for those countries. It raises a number of challenges to refugee and migration policies that address family reunification and formation, trafficking, smuggling and labour migration, and forced migration. A study into the subject of transnational families in New Zealand reveals the modern trends in migration across borders. The country has been a destination to settler migration, international business, tourism and international education students (Ho & Bedford, 2008). Just as in the traditional countries of immigration in Australia and North America, international migration systems are being transformed in several other countries by shifts in policy allowing residents on temporary permits or visas to change the permit/visa status on shore, and to change to permanent residence. This has increased the transnational families. Of specific concern is the effect of these migrations on the families and communities of origin of the now immigrants. Research has revealed that the families have adopted strategies and have established what has been termed the transnational corporation of kin. These families remain in contact through transnational communication, financial support, shared imaginary of belonging, and regular travel (Ho & Bedford, 2008). A strategy used by migrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the late 1980s and the 1990s termed astronauting helped them maintain family ties in their new home as well as in Asia. Even with the astraunauting strategy, researchers in New Zealand found out that parachute kids (children in astronaut families as they were referred to) faced several challenges (Ho & Bedford, 2008). These challenges included coping with extra burdens of living in families where either one or both parents were always absent. They were also struggling to deal with identity issues and transition to new systems and culture. Different cultures have given rise to different efforts used by the transnational families to remain in touch with their people back at home. In Ghana, for example, parents who have left their children behind can still be ‘good parents’ if they continued to send remittances; they may even be better than the caregivers who stay behind but are poor (Coe, 2011). This is true since the Ghanaian family life understands that affection should be expressed by distribution of material resources. Studies have shown that parents who have migrated increasingly attempt to replace their emotional intimacy with remittances and material goods (Coe, 2011). While studying transnational families in Honduras, Schmalzbauer described a parent who tried to establish and maintain connection with his son by sending toys to him. Although his son developed a new liking for video games and motorcycles, he still felt that he needed to know who his father was. Parrenas (2001) also reports that during a study in the United States on transnational families, a Filipino worker in the United States said that material goods were not a replacement for maternal love; in reference to her childhood experiences when her mother worked in the United States. However other studies revealed that other Filipino children would readily accept commodities in place of affection (Parrenas, 2002). Other studies that focused more on the emotional pain caused by the separation of parents from their children have criticised the legal restrictions that keep these children away from their parents as well as the social and economic consequences of the policies that spur migration (Dreby, 2006). It is therefore apparent that the cultural construction will to a great extent influence the response of children with regard to migration of the parent (Coe, 2011). While discussions have continued as to whether or not these migrations have positive effects to the families left behind in terms of emotional attachment and care, researchers have also showed desirable benefits by the communities and countries of origin in the form of remittances (De Haas & Plug, 2006). Migrant remittances continue to be increasingly important for developing countries. Statistics show that world remittances rose from US$ 2 billion in 1970 to about US$ 28 billion in 1988, and in 2001, the figure was at US$ 72 billion every year (De Haas & Plug, 2006). These remittances have become the second-biggest funding from external sources after foreign direct investments. Remittances play an important role in alleviating poverty and improving and sustaining livelihoods as well as increasing the ability of the migrant families to successfully educate their children and provide them with health care (Adams & Page, 2003). Jones (1998) also argues that remittances represent a safety net in those areas where poverty levels are high; the remittances are again free from barriers and controls of political origin than other products or capital flows. Low income countries in South-Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have reported rising remittances constituting a high component of the international capital inflows as compared to other middle income countries (De Haas & Plug, 2006). The remittances are a direct benefit by the country of origin and the communities where the migrants came from. They improve income distribution and the quality of life more than other development approaches. Remittance flows are however dependant on several factors like marital status of the migrants, the migrant’s earnings and economic activity in host countries, their number and their social and emotional ties with their countries of origin (De Haas & Plug, 2006). Other factors may include political risk and trust, interest rates, economic prospects in sending and receiving countries and facilities for funds transfer. The past five decades have seen much debate on the connection between migration and development in those countries and communities that send migrants to other countries with opposing views of migration pessimists and migration optimists (De Haas, 2010). While migration pessimists considered the net effect of these migrations as negative, associating it with increasing number of dependencies and leading to brain drain in the sending countries, migration optimists viewed it as a source of several positive effects to the sending community and country, associating it with benefits like remittances and improved livelihoods. The development contribution of the migration in the sending countries was framed within diaspora involvement in development projects and the renewed hopes on circular and return migration (Gundel, 2002). Neo-classical migration theory views migration as another means of allocation of factors of production with benefits for both the sending and receiving countries (De Haas, 2010). The re-allocation of the labour from the rural agricultural parts of the world to industrialised urban areas is viewed as a prerequisite for the growth of the economy and therefore a constituent contribution of the entire development process. This school of reasoning argues that with the free labour movement, there will be increasing labour scarcity in sending countries that will coincide with a higher marginal labour productivity that will increase wage levels. Capital on the other hand will flow in the opposite direction from the labour-scarce to the capital scarce sending countries. In this way, the migration process promotes factor price equalization and it will cease only when wage levels at the destination and destination converge. The theory puts great expectation on the migrant workers since they were expected to re-invest in large enterprises in their countries of origin after their expected return. They represented hope for the development of their land of origin. Pessimistic views accommodate paradigm which sees the migrations as ‘flying from misery’. Papademetriou (1985) argued that migrant sending suffered evolution into irreversible depletion of already meagre skilled manpower supply as well as the most dynamic, healthy and productive members of the society. Another concern that results from the migrations is brain drain. It is true that sending countries have encouraged the emigration of lower skilled and less educated citizens; but the attitude towards the emigration of more skilled people has always been more negative (De Haas, 2010). As Graeme (2008) puts it, emigration is selective of the very best and the brightest and results in diminution of the human capital that is vital for development. More countries place greater emphasis on possession of skills in their selection criteria of immigrants and this, together with increase in global skilled and talent workers competition, have exacerbated these tendencies. It has been seen to snatch the poor and underdeveloped countries of their scarce professional and skilled labour resources that the states have invested in for many years. Graeme (2008) has pointed out that migration between economies has been a significant contributor of the Asia-Pacific integration with benefits for destination and origin nations as well as the migrants themselves. He further notes that there has been an increase in awareness in this region of the usually complex relationship between the labour movement and economic and social development with which it is associated. The contribution of these migrants to the development of their communities of origin has also continued to be understood. A former Secretary General of the United Nations once said that the potential that the migrants have in transforming their native countries has continued to capture the imaginations of local and national authorities, institutions and even the private sector. He added that countries can co-operate to create greater benefits for the migrants and their countries as well as the societies that receive them (Graeme, 2008). On the effect of remittances to the sending communities, Koc & Onan (2004) note that the effects are now evident throughout the world. Literature materials continue to focus on how these remittances are spent by their recipients that will usually be the migrant’s spouses, parents, children and siblings and their effects in terms of benefits and costs for the those communities’ economies. As has been found by several research works, the larger part of these remittances will be spent on daily expenses like clothing, food, health care and they form a significant part of the income for these households (Koc & Onan, 2004). These funds also get spent on improving housing, building, buying cattle or land as well as consumer goods like washing machines and televisions. It has also been found out that only a small part of the remittances will be saved or used in any productive investment like starting a business or other activities with multiplier effects. There have been disagreements among researchers as to whether remittance recipients use these resources productively and rationally or wastefully. Some researchers criticize the use of these resources for short-term needs in the house, which generally increases the demand for imports, with no significant savings or income generating investments. They have the belief that these resources should be channelled into development of projects and small businesses that will increase local production and income and contribute to the reduction of unemployment (Martin, 1990). Another fear is that the recipient may become dependent on their emigrant relatives and therefore reduce motivation to invest in their own money-generating activities. These remittances have also caused excessive consumerism that may lead to inequalities when remittance receiving families exceed the standards of living of those families without any family members working abroad (Ouaked, 2002). Leeves (2009), however, says that migration and remittances will discourage future emigration since remittances improve living standards in the home country. Other researchers, however, believe that these incomes are used very reasonably by their recipients. They say that channelling remittances to local development will greatly depend on the local context and have the view that criticism of the consumption patterns generally ignores the circumstances in which the decisions have been made. They also ignore the nature of the transfers as well as the limited opportunities that could accommodate the small-scale investments in the migrant’s communities of origin and the financial and social capital required for starting a new business (Jan, 2002). Turkey has witnessed large migrations over the past years but the government took this positively, considering it as a means for attaining economic development (Koc & Onan, 2004). The country considered this an export of excess labour which ultimately helps the emigration community catch up economically with the destination areas. This line of thought assumes that those who move to other places are unemployed and therefore will not affect the production of their areas of origin. The sending communities continue to benefit from the reduced unemployment/underemployment with improved balance of payments. This was specifically beneficial to Turkey since the country had a surplus accounting for 16.7% of its labour force in 1986 (Koc & Onan, 2004). While the discussion continues on the international scene on the positive and negative effects of transnationalism, notable differences have been noted as far as the different professionals who migrate to other countries are concerned. The loss of health care professionals who provide direct clinical services, for example, may have huge negative short-term effect on the health care received by the residents than that which results from losing health researchers. Migrating IT professionals may more easily establish networks that will promote business for the source community employment and in this way produce a positive effect (Ouaked, 2002). Conclusion The increasing globalization and technological advancements have made migration much easier and faster than it was previously. More populations migrate and countries have developed policies that encourage a given trend in immigration. These migrations have, however, been associated with several effects both for the sending and receiving countries. As has been discussed, the families of these migrant workers who remain back home have had to endure emotional and psychological challenges but have also enjoyed other benefits mainly arising from the financial support that they receive from their family members working abroad. Although sending communities have suffered loss of talent and professionals, the communities and countries have continued to harvest from the rising remittances recorded by these nations. The debate on the effects of the transnational families will, however, continue to persist with researchers aiming at unveiling more on the subject. 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