The Politics of Remittance and the Role of Returning Migrants: Localizing Capitalism in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Purpose – The chapter discusses the importance of remittances for the way rural people in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, engage with capitalism in the form of development, wage labor, and the modern consumer economy.Methodology/approach – The chapter draws upon a combination of original ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2002 and 2008 and readings of previous anthropological research about Manus.Findings – The chapter shows how the remittances of goods and money are part of the maintenance of long-term exchange relationships between emigrants and their rural kin, and how remittances are regarded as crucial in fostering local development. The remittances comprise a large proportion of the flow of money into Manus. They also form social ties between migrants and villagers, and may facilitate the return of migrants to their home village. The moral conflicts and evaluations of status and leadership tied into the remittance practices and the strategies employed by returning migrants are explained as the articulation of different values rather than one system supplanting the other.Originality/value – The aspect of remittances related to return migration is particularly under-theorized in anthropology. In this way the chapter has value to both researchers specializing in remittance-economies or local-level politics and development planners and practitioners.

Citation

Dalsgaard, S. (2013), "The Politics of Remittance and the Role of Returning Migrants: Localizing Capitalism in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea", Mccormack, F. and Barclay, K. (Ed.) Engaging with Capitalism: Cases from Oceania (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 33), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 277-302. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-1281(2013)0000033013