Published on People Move

A commendable web anthology on remittances

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I recently revisited the Social Science Research Council's (SSRC) Web Anthology on Remittances and Development, and was pleasantly surprised to find an excellent collection of research articles on this rather fast-growing topic. The articles are presented in a convenient format, organized under some broad themes such as concepts, methods, measures, determinants, uses, and impacts of remittances.

One area where more articles exist and can be added are those on remittance systems (by this I mean retail payment systems) and how they can be leveraged for accessing finance/capital at the household or institutional level. There could also be more articles on regulations - especially on anti-money-laundering/countering financing of terrorism - that affect remittance transactions.

This seamless anthology has the scope to grow in many directions. Contact Josh DeWind if you know of any articles that may be useful additions.

Last year I was invited by SSRC to participate in a conference on future directions for research and policy on migration and development. I did my best to 'present, discuss, and critique' two papers, but also went a bit beyond my mandate and started thinking loudly (and somewhat incoherently) about migration policies.  Josh kindly got that somewhat incoherent intervention transcribed. Now a revised and more readable version of that intervention has been posted at the SSRC Migration Program website under the "State Policies toward Migration and Development" section.  Your comments on my comments are welcome!


Authors

Dilip Ratha

Lead Economist and Economic Adviser to the Vice President of Operations, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, World Bank

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