Danish Institute for International Studies(DIIS) hereby has the pleasure of inviting you to the next seminar in the ‘Diaspora, Development and Conflict’ Seminar Series:

Social Remittances

Wednesday, 9 November 2005, 13.00-15.30

Danish Center for International Studies and Human Rights
Nordskov meeting room,
Wilders Plads 8H, 3rd floor, 1448 Copenhagen K

Background

Social remittances are usually defined as the ideas, practices, identities and social capital that flow from receiving to sending country communities. Social remittances are transferred by migrants and refugees or they are exchanged by letter or other forms of communication, including by phone, fax, the internet or video. They may affect family relations, gender roles, class and race identity, as well as have a substantial impact on political, economic and religious participation. Social remittances constitute a so far neglected local-level counterpart to macro-level global monetary and cultural flows, although they are key to understanding how migration modifies the lives of those who remain behind. To the extent that social remittances flow together with economic remittances, changes in normative structures and general practices may be pertinent to ensure the continuation of economic remittances.

Programme

13.00-13.10 Introduction
Simon Turner, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), coordinator of the “Diaspora, Development and Conflict” programme

13.10-13.40 Social Remittances – Culture as a Development Tool
Peggy Levitt, Associate Professor, Wellesley College and Harvard University

13.40-14.10 Agents of Development and Change – the ‘Somali Diaspora’ at Work
Nauja Kleist, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, Copenhagen

14.10-14.30 Coffee Break

14.30-15.00 Critique of the concept of social remittances
Mette Thunø, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies,(tbc)

15.00-15.30 Discussion

Practical Information

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, and registration is not required.
For further information please contact Simon Turner at stu@diis.dk.

Short Bios and Abstracts

Peggy Levitt – is associate professor at Wellesley College and Harvard University. She has along research background in transnationalism and is the author of The Transnational Villagers and co-editor of The Changing Face of home: transnational lives of the second generation.

Social Remittances – Culture as a Development Tool
In the 21st century, many people will belong to two societies at the same time. Researchers call those who maintain strong, regular ties to their homelands and who organize aspects of their lives across national borders transnational migrants. They assimilate into the countries that receive them while sustaining strong ties to their homelands. Assimilation and transnational relations are not mutually exclusive; they happen simultaneously and influence each other. More and more, people earn their livings, raise their families, participate in religious communities, and express their political views across national borders. The host-country experiences of some migrants remain strongly influenced by their continuing ties to their country of origin and the fate of sending communities is inextricably linked to its immigrant members.

The economic remittances that transnational migration generates are being heralded as the world's development panacea. Global lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are working hard to find ways to increase these flows and to harness them so they remain firmly within the control of formal banking systems. This may well be a smart move. But migrants and non-migrants, though separated by physical distance, still occupy the same social space. Their cultural imaginaries are produced and performed together. Migrants also send social remittances to their sending communities. These are the ideas, practices, identities, and social capital that migrants accumulate in countries of reception that they transfer back to the countries that they come from. Social and cultural remittances are key development resources that, until now, have been underutilized. This papers explores how they can be usefully incorporated into the development equation.

Nauja Kleist - is a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen. She is currently working on a thesis examining linkages between transnationalism and integration among Somalis in Denmark. Her work especially explores transnational political mobilisation and organization in relation to diasporic identification, marginalization, and processes of recognition.

Agents of Development and Change: The ‘Somali Diaspora’ at Work
This paper analyses Somali transnational engagement with a specific focus on reconstruction projects. Taking departure in two case studies, the paper examines social remittances in relation to processes and articulations of development, return and democratization. Articulating themselves as part of ‘the diaspora’, the involved migrants position themselves as agents of modernity and change, contributing to the reconstruction and democratization of Somalia and Somaliland. This position is often framed as a result of the exposure to the West, which is seen to generate competences of efficiency and democracy. Life in the West, however, is often perceived ambiguously, especially in relation to gender and family relations, Islam, and the arguably marginalised situations of many Somali migrants. The paper finally suggests that an important aspect of transnational engagements is to ‘make a difference’ in terms of reconstruction and reconciliation. Likewise transnational engagements might be seen to offer recognition and the (re)gaining of respect and status in a context of marginalization in the host country.

Top