Transfer Behavior in Migrant Sending Communities

Abstract

We study how international migration changes the private transfers made between households in the migrant sending communities of developing countries. A priori, it is indeterminate whether migration and remittances strengthen or weaken the degree of private transfers in these communities. From a policy perspective, public income redistribution programs would have an important role to play if migration reduced the extent of private transfers. Using household survey data from rural Kyrgyzstan, we find that households with migrant members (as well as households receiving remittances) are more likely than households without migrants (without remittances) to provide monetary transfers to others and to receive non-monetary (i.e. unpaid labor) transfers from others. This suggests that migrant households, through their access to remittance income, insure their social networks against shocks or redistribute income to poorer households in the community and receive labor transfers in return. This implies that migration is unlikely to lead to a weakening of private transfers.