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For more than a quarter of a century there has been substantial emigration from the smaller island states of the Pacific to metropolitan fringe states, mainly the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Migration reduced unemployment in island states and remittances have contributed to raised living standards. This paper provides a better understanding of the implications of remittances for economic and social development in the Pacific region. It discusses alternative explanations of remittances, estimates of the size of remittance flows, the impact of remittances on the home country, and policies that influence the flow of remittances. Much of the empirical work in this paper is based on Tonga and Samoa, although the findings apply more generally to other Pacific island nations.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether the motives behind sending remittances differ for the migrants from single- and multi-migrant families in India.

The paper uses the second round of India Human Development Survey conducted in the year 2012 to analyse migrant’s motives using the two-part model and the sample selection model (SSM). Here, the probit model is used to model whether the migrant sends the remittances and then the amount of remittances is modelled using the ordinary least squares method. The SSM assumes that these two decisions are interdependent. This migrant-level study is the first to segregate single- and multiple-migrant settings and compare them for the existence of altruism or inheritance motives.

The findings indicate altruism as the main motive behind remittances for the single migrants in India. On the other hand, presence of inheritance motive is evident along with altruism in the multi-migrant setting.

The analysis is restricted due to limited availability of information on migrant as the data are collected from the migrant’s family at origin.

This is the first study to use a unique nationally representative survey which enables it to point out differences in the motives behind remittances for the single-migrant and multi-migrant settings in India.

This article provides a formal framework for the analysis of the impact of international migration in the presence of remittances. The discussion differentiates between temporary and permanent migration and between the effects of remittances that raise investment and those that raise consumption spending in the source country. Changes in prices, income distribution and national welfare are examined.

Remittances sent by immigrants have long been viewed as a means to combat poverty, to improve consumption, and to raise standard of living. The present study examines the impact of remittances on the economic well-being of Indian households. The analysis is conducted on a randomly selected representative sample of households in Rajasthan. Three types of households are examined: 575 households having current labor migrants, 162 never having migrants, and 232 not having migrants at present but sent migrants in the past. Analysis of the data reveals meaningful differences between the three types of households. Specifically, those having labor migrants are characterized by the highest household income and standard of living. Further analyses suggest that although remittances are likely to improve economic well-being and to secure a higher standard of living they do not have long lasting effect on the economic well-being of the families when migration ends.

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.

Migrants’ remittances to Egypt have increased considerably in both size and importance over the past 40 years. This increase has made Egypt one of the top remittance recipients in the world and the leading recipient country in the Middle East. As migrant remittances are one of Egypt's main sources of foreign capital, this study aims to identify the impact of these remittances on economic growth.

The study collects annual data on migrant remittances sent to Egypt during the period 1980–2017. The study uses the Augmented Dickey–Fuller test and Johnsen's Co-integration test to establish long-run relationships between variables. Then, a vector error correction model (VECM) is used to combine long-run and short-run dynamics, and a Granger causality test is performed. Finally, diagnostic tests of the VECM are conducted.

Results reveal that migrants’ remittances to Egypt are countercyclical in the sense that they have a long-term negative impact on economic growth. These results are determined by the Granger causality between migrants' remittances, inflation rate and imports.

The study can help policymakers to develop appropriate policies to turn migrants' remittances into a reliable source of capital that could result in a stable economic growth.

Although various empirical studies have examined the growth effect of remittances, most of them are based on cross-country data. This study contributes to the field by attempting to close a gap in the literature by empirically analyzing the impact of remittances on a single country over a long period.

Studies on the determinants of remittances focus primarily on a single country or undertake cross‐country analyses using aggregate data. By comparison, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the determinants of remittances from multiple host to multiple destination countries. To address this deficiency, the purpose of this paper is to use a novel dataset which captures these bilateral flows.

The paper concentrates on three sets of explanatory variables: those which characterize the pair relationship, those that pertain to migrants' host country, and those related to the migrants' home country.

Cultural and political factors play a fundamental role. Altruism is not key in migrant remittances; investment motives are more important. Bilateral aid inflows bear a direct relationship to remittances. The marginal effect of happiness (in migrants' host and home countries) on remittances is positive for a large percentage of countries in the sample.

Results nullify the oft‐asserted role of remittances in assisting with adverse economic conditions, such as inflation. They also identify a possible nexus between remittances and foreign aid – a link that heretofore has not been identified or discussed in the literature or recognized by policy‐makers.

The contribution of the paper is its use of bilateral data to present evidence on remittances capturing not only North‐South, but also South‐South flows. The paper also contributes to the literature by considering, for the first time, some additional variables as potential determinants of remittances, chief among them the level of happiness of migrants' host and home countries, as well as the level of aid disbursed to migrants' home country.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the macroeconomic impact of migrant workers’ remittances on economic growth in four developing Asian countries namely: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

This study utilizes annual time series data over the period 1976-2012 and the ordinary least squares as an analytical technique for parameters estimation.

Empirical results support the existence of a significant positive relationship between migrant workers remittances and economic growth. The other control variables such as foreign direct investment, openness to trade and infrastructure are also found to be statistically significant with expected signs.

The findings of this study are expected to guide policy makers in formulating the right and relevant policies through which migrant workers’ remittances can be made more productive and its benefits for both migrants and the country of origin are maximized. Consequently, it will foster economic growth and development.

This paper provides some valuable evidences on the significance of migrant workers remittances as a source of economic growth. Moreover, the study differs from the erstwhile studies in terms of control variables, time period and method of estimation. Finally, the empirical results established are relatively robust.

Remittances in the former Soviet Union have increased rapidly over the past decade. In some countries of the former Soviet Union, remittances have reached staggering levels. For example, in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan remittances now account for over 10% of GDP, with Tajikistan leading the pack with annual remittances of approximately 40% of GDP. Remittances in this group of economies now exceed foreign direct investment and foreign assistance. Because this rapid rise in remittances is a relatively recent trend and obtaining reliable data is difficult, this area of research has been underexplored.

The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of existing remittance measurement methodologies. Moreover, we propose practical methods to adjust the Central Bank of Russia data to derive more accurate remittances estimates in selected countries of the former Soviet Union. These selected economies are major recipients of remittances among transition economies and account for as much as 10% of remittances worldwide. There have been attempts to provide this type of estimation in individual countries; however, there have been no studies, to our knowledge, that propose a general methodology for the region.