Panel 2: The Ties that Bind: Social Networks and Remittances of Transnational Migrants in Asia - Changing Identities... Symposium
The international migrants of today construct for themselves multifaceted layers of networks and ties between the home and destination countries. These are deemed important in asserting the transmigrant’s roles and in negotiating their identities “back home” and in the host country simultaneously. In this panel, we specifically look into two forms of these transnational connections: economic ties (remittances) and social networks. Higuchi investigates how migrants tap social networks – kinship, pre-migration friendship ties and ties formed in the destination – for business start-ups in the case of Brazilian entrepreneurs in Japan. On the other hand, remittances, a forceful economic tie that binds the migrant and those “left behind” are the common theme in the presentations by Toyota and Carlos. Toyota discusses how, through their voluntary remittances, Burmese migrants in Singapore take up two “nurturing” roles simultaneously – as care workers in the destination and as “social reproducers” in their home country. Carlos, on the other hand, looks into the determinants of remittances and in the process identifies the factors that influence the strength of this economic tie.
Abstracts of Presentations
Naoto Higuchi (University of Tokushima): “Do Transnational Migrants Transplant Social Networks?Analyzing the Social Capital of Brazilian Entrepreneurs in Japan”
Classical studies on migration, like those of the Chicago school, emphasized social disorganization of migrants. In these past thirty years, however, migration researchers have regarded social networks as the key to understanding migration processes. Indeed, the contrasting views of migrant networks are too simple to clarify the dynamic processes of network formation. In fact, few studies have tested how migrant networks are changing in host societies, or which ties are transplanted from the home country, and which of them are utilized. This paper examines the social networks of migrants by testing three hypotheses on the social capital of 78 Brazilian entrepreneurs in Japan, namely: disorganization, resilience, and reorganization of migrant networks. By analyzing the social capital mobilized to start a business, the following results were obtained. (1) While most entrepreneurs depended on social capital in the initial phase of their businesses, they relied less on social relations transplanted to Japan. On the one hand, family members and Brazilian friends made in Japan are primary sources of social capital, and on the other hand, kinship and pre-migration friendship ties are much less important. (2) Brazilian entrepreneurs selectively use different sources of social capital. Japanese friends and acquaintances provide information and guarantees, family members help with financial resources, and Brazilian friends gained in Japan are sources of both. These results support the reorganization hypothesis since social networks are selectively maintained and reconstructed in the process of migration.
Mika Toyota (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore): “Remittances for Social Reproduction: The Case of Burmese Care Workers in Singapore”
It is estimated that there are currently about 30,000 Burmese working and living in Singapore. Since January 1995 when a Singapore-Myanmar government agreement regarding contract nurses was signed, the number of nurses and care workers from Myanmar has been on the rise. The majority of those care workers are tertiary-educated single females, which reflects the non-marriage trend in the country. This paper suggests that remittances have significant value not only for those who receive them but also for those who send them, the care workers. This paper focuses on the voluntary remittances and their significance for social reproduction for the migrants themselves. A large part of the voluntary remittances are sent back to support family and relatives. By doing so, the ideology of women as ‘nurturing mothers’ in the Buddhist value system is symbolically sustained and reconfigured despite their unmarried status and the fact that they are far away from home. Thus, by extending the concepts of ‘family remittances’ and ‘global chain of care’, this paper argues that while these Burmese migrant nurses are employed to care for the elderly and sick abroad, at the same time it enables them to symbolically practice “mothering” roles for the people in the home country without actually getting married. The findings are based on my questionnaire survey data (n= 153) and the in-depth interviews with Burmese care workers in Singapore in the first half of 2006.
Maria Reinaruth D. Carlos (Ryukoku University): “An Empirical Inquiry into the Determinants of Remittances:The Case of the Philippines”
Remittances are said to be the strongest tie that bind the transnational migrant to his family back home. In the case of the Philippines, migrants are called “the new heroes” as their dollars, which reached US$10.69 billion in 2005, have been a big source of needed foreign currency to support economic development. Indeed, up until now, remittances have been widely discussed in the context of its macroeconomic impact to the sending country. However, it is equally necessary to look closely on the migrant’s remittance behavior if the home country’s government is to draw policies that will maximize the migrants’ contribution to the home country. This quantitative study therefore attempts to contribute to the literature by investigating the factors affecting the migrant household’s decision on (1) whether to remit or not; (2) how much to remit, and (3) the uses of remittances. By applying a multinomial logit regression analysis using panel data from the Survey of Overseas Filipinos (SOF) in 1996 to 2002, we test which of the following sets of attributes, namely, (1) personal characteristics of the migrant (age, gender, position in the household, educational attainment), (2) migration characteristics (destination, type/status of migration, duration of stay and type of occupation in the host country) will have significant impact on the strength of this economic tie.