Vortrag
Migration and Social Networks in Kyrgyzstan: Informal Transfers in the Sending Communities

Bakhrom Mirkasimov, Tanika Chakraborty, Susan Steiner

Labor Market Adjustment in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Central Asia and China in the Wake of the Great Recession : IZA/Higher School of Economics Workshop
Moskau, Russland, 05.10.2012 - 06.10.2012



Abstract:
Previous research investigating the link between social networks and migration primarily seeks to answer how networks affect migration decisions or labour market outcomes at the destination. Little attention has been paid to the possibility that migration might affect the degree of cooperation within social networks of households left behind at the origin. In this paper, we argue that migration and remittances could either strengthen or weaken the degree of informal transfers within social networks. We use data from a detailed household survey in Kyrgyzstan, designed by the authors, to empirically study the effect of migration and remittances on both financial and non-financial informal transfers. We find that migrant households make more financial transfers than non-migrant households, particularly in rural areas. The same is true when we compare households that receive remittances with households that do not receive remittances. The fact that there is no large difference inthe effect of migration and the effect of remittances comes from the large analogy between these two aspects. Most households in Kyrgyzstan that have migrants abroad also receive remittances. Furthermore, we find that the receipt of non-financial help in the form of labour appears to be driven by the neediness of households. Only those migrant households with dependants receive more non-financial help than others.