FPP-04-9

Together with the USA and Australia, Canada is one of the three major immigrant-receiving countries inthe world. In 2002, there were approximately 4,000,000 immigrants from developing countries, 52% ofwhom are from Asian developing countries. As a proportion of total population, this places Canada aheadof the USA and Australia in accepting immigrants from poor countries. While there is an increasing body ofresearch information on the emergence of transnational immigrant communities in the other majorimmigration countries and their bearing on development in poor countries, there is a marked absence ofresearch on transnational immigrant communities in the Canadian context. However, the absence ofresearch evidence on the existence of these communities in Canada is not evidence of their non-existence.

This paper addresses these issues; in particular, the issue of remittance market development and some ofthe most recent initiatives that rich countries and some international development authorities have eitherlaunched or are contemplating to improve remittance market efficiency. The paper categorizes theseinitiatives into initiatives “from above” and “from below” and cautions against initiatives “from above”that could hinder rather than facilitate remittance flows into poor households. The paper addresses someof the key issues relating to transnational immigrant communities in the Canadian context and theirbearing on Canada's domestic and international development policies. It proposes a research agendawithin a multidisciplinary comparative framework to stimulate academic and policy discussion and tocarry forward investigation of these and other kindred issues.

Globalization, Immigrants' Transnational Agency andEconomic Development in their Homelands

Rudi Robinson

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Globalization is accused of exacerbating poverty and inequality in developing countries. Critics point to themillions in Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African countries living in rising poverty and attributedthis to the march of globalization. International migration is the human dimension of globalization.Overlooked in the raging debate is the fact that at least this one element of globalization is working at thegrassroots level to reduce poverty—the rise of immigrant communities worldwide described as“transnational.” These communities are comprised of millions of immigrant families and individuals frompoor countries, who have not abandoned their homelands following emigration. Instead, they masterfullydeploy the tools of contemporary globalization to forge, maintain and expand their homeland networkties and to create significant new opportunities for economic, political and social exchange across nationalborders. The most directly visible evidence of this is the growth of remittances into a multi-billion dollarmarket linking rich and poor countries from below. In contrast to past dispositions, both nationalgovernments and international development authorities currently perceive the remittance market as asource of development funds with considerable untapped potential.

P O L I C Y P A P E RD O C U M E N T D E P O L I T I Q U ED O C U M E N T O D E P O L Í T I C A

RÉSUMÉ

RESUMEN

On reproche à la mondialisation d'accentuer la pauvreté et les inégalités dans les pays en développement. Sesdétracteurs parlent de millions de personnes dans les pays d'Amérique latine, des Caraïbes, d'Asie et d'Afrique quivivent dans une pauvreté croissante et attribuent cette situation à la progression de la mondialisation. La migrationinternationale est la dimension humaine de la mondialisation. Dans le feu du débat, on a négligé le fait que cetélément de la mondialisation contribue au niveau local à la réduction de la pauvreté - en favorisant l'expansion, àtravers le monde, des communautés d'immigrants dites « transnationales ».

Le Canada est, avec les États-Unis et l'Australie, l'un des trois pays qui reçoivent le plus d'immigrants. En 2002, il yavait au Canada environ 4 000 000 immigrants de pays en développement, dont 52% de pays asiatiques endéveloppement. En proportion du nombre total d'habitants, ces chiffres placent le Canada devant les États-Unis etl'Australie pour ce qui est du nombre d'immigrants provenant de pays pauvres. Même si l'on dispose d'une quantitégrandissante de données de recherche sur l'émergence des communautés d'immigrants transnationales dans lesautres grands pays d'immigration et sur leur effet sur le développement des pays pauvres, il y a une absencemarquée de recherches sur les communautés d'immigrants transnationales dans le contexte canadien. Toutefois,l'absence de recherches sur l'existence de ces communautés au Canada n'est pas une preuve de leur non-existence.

Ce document aborde ces questions, en particulier celle du développement du marché des envois de fonds, etexamine quelques-unes des initiatives les plus récentes mises en place ou envisagées par les pays riches et certainsresponsables du développement international pour améliorer l'efficacité du marché des envois de fonds. Cedocument classe ces initiatives par catégorie selon qu'elles viennent « d'en haut » ou « d'en bas » et met en gardecontre les initiatives « d'en haut » qui pourraient entraver plutôt que faciliter les envois de fonds destinés auxménages pauvres. Le document traite de certains des grands enjeux liés aux communautés d'immigrantstransnationales dans le contexte canadien et de leur incidence sur les politiques nationales et internationales duCanada en matière de développement. Il propose un programme de recherche à l'intérieur d'un cadre comparatifmultidisciplinaire pour favoriser les débats universitaires et politiques et les recherches sur ces questions et d'autresquestions connexes.

Muchos culpan a la globalización de exacerbar la pobreza y la desigualdad en los países en vías de desarrollo. Loscríticos apuntan a los millones de personas en América Latina, el Caribe, Asia y África que viven en condiciones depobreza cada vez peores y lo atribuyen al avance de la globalización cuya dimensión humana haya expresión en lamigración internacional. Los debates que se sostienen sobre este tema pasan por alto que dentro del fenómeno de laglobalización, este es un elemento que, al menos a nivel de base, está ayudando a aliviar la pobreza a partir del augede las denominadas comunidades "transnacionales" que crean los inmigrantes en todo el planeta.

Además de EE.UU. y Australia, Canadá es una de las tres naciones que acogen mayor número de inmigrantes en elmundo. En 2002, la cifra de inmigrantes procedentes de países en desarrollo alcanzó unos 4 millones, 52% de loscuales provenientes de Asia. En proporción con su población total, Canadá sobrepasa a EE.UU. y a Australia en cuantoa las cifras de inmigrantes que recibe de las naciones pobres. A pesar del creciente número de estudios sobre elsurgimiento de comunidades transnacionales en las otras dos naciones y su impacto sobre el desarrollo de los paísespobres, existe una evidente carencia de investigaciones sobre el tema en el contexto canadiense. No obstante, talausencia no es prueba de la inexistencia de estas comunidades.

Este documento aborda particularmente la problemática del desarrollo del mercado de remesas de divisas, así comoalgunas de las más recientes iniciativas para mejorar su eficiencia, implementadas o en fase de estudio, por parte depaíses desarrollados e instituciones para el desarrollo internacional. Para los efectos de este estudio, estas iniciativashan sido agrupadas en dos categorías, a saber, iniciativas "desde arriba" o "desde abajo," y advierte que, en lugar defacilitarlo, las iniciativas "desde arriba" podrían dificultar el flujo de remesas destinadas a familias pobres. Ensegundo lugar, el trabajo aborda algunas de las cuestiones claves concernientes a las comunidades inmigrantestransnacionales radicadas en Canadá y su influencia sobre las políticas de desarrollo nacional e internacional delpaís. Por último, se propone una agenda de investigaciones en un marco multidisciplinario comparativo paraestimular el debate de políticas y perspectivas académicas, así como promover el estudio de estas problemáticas, yotras afines al tema.

2

The Emergence and Significance of TransnationalImmigrant CommunitiesThe only thing that the poor in the developing worldcan afford to care about is simple, straightforwardand down-to-earth solutions that can help themreduce their income poverty. They are not concernedabout such things as global architecture and globalgovernance or similar stratospheric notions ofdevelopment designed to make them behave the waythe rich countries want them to behave.Contemporary globalization stands accused ofexacerbating their poverty. Transnational migrantcommunities are uniquely the product ofcontemporary globalization. Overlooked in the raginganti-globalization debate is the fact that at least oneelement of globalization contributes to povertyreduction and growth in developing countries: therole of millions of immigrant families and individualsworldwide who organize themselves intotransnational communities to contribute to twocountries, two economies and two culturessimultaneously. This is particularly evident in theirmasterful deployment of the time-space-compressing tools of contemporaryglobalization to forge and maintaindurable economic, political and culturalnetwork ties with their homelands.Through these ties, they positivelycontribute directly to economic growthand poverty reduction at the grassrootslevel in their countries of origin.

The emergence of transnational migrantcommunities is a grassroots level phenomenoncompared to other forms (such as activities ofmultinational corporations) of contemporarytransnationalism. It arises from the initiatives ofordinary people to establish, maintain, and expanddurable economic, political and social ties with theirnon-migrant families and communities of origin asthey adapt in their host countries. The existence ofthese communities and their transnationaldevelopment activities was unnoticed for decades.Today, there is an increasing amount of ethnographicresearch evidence that has demonstrated theexistence of these communities worldwide. Theaccumulated evidence has firmly placed before theeyes of the international development community(including governments of emigration countries) thepotential impacts of these communities on povertyreduction and growth in sending countries. Membersof these communities have not severed their social,economic and political ties with their homelandsfollowing settlement and integration in their newcountry in the way traditional international migration

and immigrant integration theorizing predicted.Instead, with the aid of the tools of globalization -modern transportation, telecommunication and aglobal financial infrastructure - these ties haveevolved and matured into transnational migrantcommunities. Members of these communities,individually and collectively, simultaneouslydistribute their time, ideas, material resources andloyalty between their host countries andcommunities of origin in their homelands. Their cross-border activities also strengthen trade, business,economic, and cultural l inkages betweenimmigration and emigration countries. Not allimmigrants engage in cross-border economicdevelopment activities, however, and not allimmigrants who engage in cross-border activitiesengage in economic development-oriented activities

The discovery of these communities and theirtransnational economic development activities hasexposed the limits of traditional internationalmigration theorizing. These developments havebroadened understanding of successful immigrant

adaptation in host countries, redefinedthe scope for action-oriented migrationresearch and hence operational policyunderstanding of the relationshipbetween the process of immigranta d a p t a t i o n a n d t h e e c o n o m i cdevelopment of poor countr ies .Therefore, the existence of thesecommunities and their transnationaldevelopment activities has significantimplications for a range of policies and

practices in both migrant receiving and migrantsending countries.

In terms of openness to immigrants from all regions ofthe world, and access and receptivity to immigrantsfrom poor countries in particular, current worldmigration statistics show that Canada isamong the major immigrant-receiving countries (R.Robinson, forthcoming). For example, 18% ofCanada's population are immigrants whereas thepercentages for the United States and Australia are11.4% and 21.2% respectively. In terms of immigrantsfrom emigration countries in all regions of the world,Canada outranks the United States in every category,except the Americas, and outranks Australia in everycategory except Oceania. In terms of demographicaccess and receptivity and labour force access byimmigrants from developing and transition countries,Canada again outranks the United States andAustralia, respectively. Asian developing countries arethe single largest source of immigration (52%) to

1

2

3

the leader

Transnationalmigrant

communities areuniquely the product

of contemporaryglobalization

3

Canada. Some immigration researchers are of theview that by 2012, immigrants will account for all ofCanada's net labour force growth. While there is anabundance of accumulated research evidence onimmigrants' transnational organizing in the othermajor immigrant-receiving countries, the researchevidence of the existence of these communities in theCanadian context is invisible. However, the absence ofresearch evidence of the existence of transnationalimmigrant communities in Canada is not evidence ofthe absence of their existence in Canada.

The wider international development communitycurrently perceives transnational immigrantcommunities, their potential for earnings andsavings, their commitment to their countries of origin,and their philanthropic orientation as a source ofconsiderably untapped resources for financingsustainable development in poor countries.Consequently, their existence and potentialdevelopment-financing roles are recurrent priorityagenda items for deliberation and policy actions atthe highest international levels (e.g., the World Bank,the International Monetary Fund, theInter-American Development Bank, theEuropean Union, the UK Department forInternational Development, the USAgency for International Developmenta n d t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a b o u rOrganization). In some migrant-sendingcountries (such us Mexico, El Salvador,Grenada, Haiti, Ghana, Somaliland,Turkey) these communities are recognized in nationalpolicy as potential partners in economic and politicaldevelopment of their homelands. These areimportant trends in current policy thinking on the partof both the international development communityand on the part of governments of emigrationcountries. These trends are in marked contrast to thenegative attitudes displayed in the past, when“development specialists” and academics in richcountries viewed migration from poor to richcountries as inherently counter-productive to thedevelopment prospects of poor countries, and whengovernments of poor countries viewed theiremigrants as traitors to their native land.

The discovery of the existence of transnationalimmigrant communities has led international andnational development authorities' to re-discoverimmigrants' transnational agency as an importantparameter in development planning and policy. Theconsensus emphasis in the re-discovery is on migrant

remittances as a new and more stable source ofexternal money than Official Development Assistance(ODA) and foreign investment flows for financingdevelopment projects and programs in poorcountries. This re-discovery is one of the mosts i g n i f i c a n t b y - p r o d u c t s o f c o n t e m p o r a r yglobalization. It is also a significantly productiveconsequence in the contexts of declining growth indeveloping countries and declining ODA and foreigninvestment flows to poor countries. The re-discoveryof the development importance of the remittancemarket is due to the hard work (in most cases “3-Dwork in their host countries”) of the millions ofimmigrants worldwide, their risk-taking abilities,altruism, durable ties to their homelands andinitiatives in deploying the tools of contemporaryglobalization. As a consequence of immigrants' hardwork, initiatives and commitment to their familiesand communities in their homelands, the remittancemarket has expanded from small store-front businessoperations that originated in immigrant communitiesinto a multi-billion dollar high-margin industry thathas attracted the interest of institutionalized players

and governments worldwide. Globalremittance flows in the aggregate areofficially estimated to average overUS$100 billion annually during the pastten years, approximately US$90 billion ofwhich is estimated to have flowed intodeveloping countries. ApproximatelyUS$40 billion is officially estimated tohave reached Latin America and

Caribbean (LAC) countries in 2003 from the UnitedStates alone. These amounts underestimate actualremittances flows, but they far exceed annual averageglobal ODA flows from rich countries. This obviouslymakes the continued portrayal of immigrants intraditional migration models as people who abandontheir homelands patently unacceptable to theinternational development community and togovernments of emigration countries.

Remittances are grassroots transnational personalflows. Researchers emphasize the personal altruisticand household/family social welfare investmentmotives behind these flows. However, because oftheir officially estimated high volumes (which aresuspected to be lower than actual total remittances)flowing annually from the United States in particular,post-9/11 heightened geo-political securityconsiderations have generated political and mediafears in rich countries that remittances could bediverted from their intended pro-poor development

4

5

6

7

Transnational Immigrant Agency and the Expansion ofthe Remittance Market

The G8 Summit and Remittance Market Development“From Above”

Remittances aregrassroots

transnationalpersonal flows

4

to non-developmental activities. The G8 Summit heldin the United States in June 2004, recognized thatremittances are “the fruits of the work of immigrants”and that they “play an increasing role in the financingof development in the workers' home countries”.However, the Summit also implicitly argues thatremittance flows are a loose canon that has becomeentrenched in the international financial system. TheSummit drew up a thatincludes an annex devoted to remittance facilitationthrough rich-country driven regulatory action, andthe areas in which each government of the G8countries should contemplate such regulatory actionto better manage the direction of these transnationalflows. Although the Plan emphasizes the fact thatremittances are poor families' and households'monies that they are entitled to use for their ownsocial and economic development, it also speculatedthat the sheer volume of remittances flowing intopoor countries makes these flows susceptible toorganized diversion from their intended householdand family development uses into activities that couldpotentially undermine stability in theglobal financial, economic and politicalsystems.

Hence, the stated goal of the Action Planis attracting and influencing a greateramount of remittances to flow throughformal government and institutionalizedprivate sector channels, where they canbe better regulated and managed tostrengthen the global financial system,and to reduce the risk that remittanceswill be used to finance activities that would de-stabilize financial markets. Accordingly, the ActionPlan lists the following programmatic areas in whicheach of the G8 countries should contemplate plannedactions:

Make it easier for people in sending and receivingcountries to engage in financial transactionsthrough formal financial systems, includingproviding access to financial literacy programswhere appropriate, and by working with theprivate sector to extend the range and reach ofthese activities.

Reduce the cost of remittance services by up to50% or more through the promotion ofcompetition, the use of innovative paymentinstruments, and by enhancing access to formalfinancial systems in sending and receivingcountries.

Promote better coherence and coordination ofinternational organizations that are working toenhance remittance services and heighten thepositive development impacts of remittancereceipts in developing countries.

Encourage cooperation between remittanceservice providers and local financial institutions,including micro-finance entities and creditunions, in ways that strengthen local financialmarkets and improve access by recipients tofinancial services.

Encourage the creation, where appropriate, ofmarket-oriented local development funds andcredit unions that give remittance-receivingfamilies more options and incentives forproductively investing remittances flows.

Support dialogue with governments, civil society,and the private sector to address specificinfrastructure and regulatory impediments, forexample, discriminatory access to payment

systems for the private sector, weaksupervisory standards and practices,and archaic financial infrastructure.

In October 2003, the World Bank, DIFIDand the International Organization forM i g r a t i o n ( I O M ) s p o n s o r e d a ninternational conference in the UK. Theconference examined the potential

impacts of transnational migrant communities on thewider economic and social development inemigration countries as viewed through the volumeof remittance flows. Discussions focussed on theopportunities and future prospects for banks and non-bank financial intermediaries to stake out a larger rolein trans-border management of these flows for thepublic good in remittance-receiving countries.Scrutiny of the list of attendees reveals that theparticipants included developed country elites,academics and the business and politically wellconnected from the “more important” developingand transition emigration countries. One observedoutcome of that conference was the wealth of well-written technical papers advocating a largerintermediating role for banks and non-bank financialinstitutions in the remittance marketplace in order tochange the character of remittances from privategoods to semi-public goods.

8

9

Global Poverty Action Plan

�

�

�

�

�

�

International Development Authoritiesand Remittance Market Development“From Above”

(...) remittanceflows are a loosecanon that has

become entrenchedin the international

financial system

5

The United States Government and Remittance MarketDevelopment “From Above”

The IDB and IAF and Remittance MarketDevelopment “From Below”

Caveats on Remittance Market Development “FromAbove”

Transnational Immigrant Communities and EconomicDevelopment: An Evolving Field of AcademicTheorizing and Applied Research

The interests demonstrated in the United StatesCongress in the remittance market further illustratethe new emphasis on the development significance ofthe remittances as the key dimension of immigrants'transnational organizing. In 2003, the House FinancialServices Committee held hearings on thetransparency of transactions at the United States endof the remittance market. Following those hearings,Senators Charles Schumer and Jon Corzine co-sponsored the

, which requirescompanies that provide international money wiretransfer services to disclose the hidden costs theycharge for those transactions. Luis Gutierrezintroduced the House version of the Act, the

, which alsointends to make the remittance market moretransparent and to bring down costs to remittancesenders and receivers. Both have yet to be passed. In2002, the USAID'S provided US$.50m tothe World Council of Credit Unions(WOCCU) to finance new programs thatwould enhance remittance flows formMexican immigrant communities intoso-called “productive investment”activities in Mexico.

The above and similar initiativesrepresent a takeoff from the past andcontinuing work of the Inter-American Foundation(IAF) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).However, the initiatives of these organizations areexplicitly and directly facilitative of concrete efforts atthe grassroots level in making remittances workbetter for the poor in developing countries. Thestrategic approach behind the IDB and IAF initiatives isthe creation of partnerships with grassroots levelorganizations and institutions. The key emphasis isbest practices in ensuring that remittances areconcretely pro-poor and development friendly. TheIDB and IAF approaches are a study in the efficacy ofremittance market development “from above” and“from below”. A very notable feature of eitherapproach is that both Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC)and the Canadian International Development Agency(CIDA) are virtual on-lookers from the sidelines.

The research on transnational communities has re-oriented development authorities to the policydiscovery that migrant remittances are a “significantand stable source of external development finance”.While the intent of the various initiatives at both theinternational and country levels is to increase andchannel remittance flows into development projectsthat both generate social and private benefits, a fewimportant caveats regarding official governmentintervention in the remittance market are in order.Remittances are personal family-to-family, orhousehold-to-household and individual-to-individualtransnational financial resource flows. They are flowsthat immigrants typically earmark for specific non-migrant family, household, or individual purposes.Therefore, they are inherently personal income flowsto, and for the recipient population. Unlike financialODA flows, which are government-to-governmentflows and are of a public goods nature, remittances

are private goods that directly reach thehands of millions of poor non-migrantfamilies, households and individuals.Unlike financial ODA flows, the senderand the receiver jointly share thedecision-making power behind the use ofremittances. Therefore, the shareddecision-making is transnationallydispersed throughout the recipient ands e n d e r p o p u l a t i o n s o f p r i v a t ehouseholds and individuals at theg r a s s r o o t s l e v e l r a t h e r t h a n

concentrated in the hands of a few political andbusiness elites in developing countries' capitals.Consequently, attempts to “change” the character ofremittances through policies that treat them as publicgoods or semi-public goods may inhibit flows that area large contributor to household poverty reductionand economic growth at the grassroots level. This, inturn, would convert a simple, straightforward, grass-roots level initiated development solution into amagnified development problem by slowing downtransition rates out of income poverty.

Transnational immigrant communities and their rolein the development of poor countries is a new andrapidly evolving field of academic theorizing andapplied research investigation at some of the world's

Money Wire Improvement andRemittance Enhancement Act

WireTransfer Fairness and Disclosure Bill

10

11

(...) a few importantcaveats regarding

official governmentintervention in theremittance market

are in order

6

leading institutions. American and Europeanacademic social scientists and policy researchers arethe pioneers in this field. Canadian academics andgovernment policy researchers have been slow inbroadening the scope of migration research beyondimmigrant labour market assimilation and culturaladaptation studies to investigatetransnational migration and economic developmentstudies. As a result, research on migranttransnationalism in the Canadian context is currentlyspotty at best and non-existent at worst. This is duelargely to the Canadian-state centric approach thatdominates the immigrant integration discourse inCanada at both the policy, academic and non-academic levels (Robinson, forthcoming). In addition,NGOs that are strategically placed to conduct or tosupport action-oriented research on transnationalimmigrant communities and their grassroots levelimpacts on poverty reduction in LAC, Asian, Africanand Middle-Eastern emigration countries areconstrained in their research efforts due to the verylimited funding opportunities availableto them. The outcome places theC a n a d i a n p u b l i c , p o l i c y - m a k i n gcommunity and immigration scholarsbehind the knowledge and informationcurve on the potentially transforminginfluences of immigrant communities inCanada and on the development ofm i g r a n t s e n d i n g c o u n t r i e s a n dcommunities.

The financial remittance market is the most visible,exemplary, and easily measurable dimension ofmigrant transnational development activities. Hence,the emphasis on migradollars as the key dimension isadmissible. However, migradollars are not the onlysignificant and measurable forms of border-spanningeconomic activities embedded in immigrantcommunities, and, neither are border-spanningeconomic activities the only dimension ofimmigrants' transnational agency. Migradollarsstimulate related economic activities such as bilateraltrade flows, business investment in sendingcountries, corporate capital mobility, emergingmarkets development, labour markets and ruraldevelopment. A number of researchers have calledattention to these migradollar-induced economicactivities. Secondly, some researchers have called

attention to the importance of knowledge, skills, andtechnology transfers (human capital) that accompanymigrants returning to their home countries afteryears in a host country; others have emphasized thetransfer of social capital that accompany immigrantsand returning migrants. The former they classify as“technological remittances”, the latter they designate“social remittances.” The embeddedness of non-financial forms of remittances in transnationalimmigrant communities has led some scholars to callfor a re-thinking of remittances. Immigrants alsoengage in pol i t ical transnational ism andphilanthropic transnationalism, which positivelyimpact political democracy and social welfareimprovement, respectively, in their homelands. Inaddition to financial remittances, these othereconomic and non-economic dimensions ofimmigrants' border-spanning activities cumulativelyimpact changes in income and poverty transitionrates in significant ways of those at the bottom of theeconomic ladder in developing countries. Therefore,

they are also of global import in thepoverty reduction and growth equations.The emphasis on financial remittancesalone in international developmentpolicy thinking as the “new developmentmantra”, and how governments ofemigration countries might transformthem into public goods leads tou n d e r e s t i m a t i o n o f m i g r a n t s 'transnational agency, and thus to policymarginalization of the global import ofthe several other dimensions ofimmigrants' transnational organizing.

The host-countries' domestic context is not neutral tomigrants' transnational development activities. Thedegree of immigrant receptivity in a host society andeconomic access shapes the economic prospects of allimmigrants and consequently, the timing, contours,scale and stability of their international developmentactivities. From the socio-cultural adaptationstandpoint, multicultural receptivity is moreconducive to immigrants' transnational practicesthan rigid assimilation policies, which encourageimmigrant conformity to a monolithic socio-culturalorder. From the economic standpoint, business cycleconditions can affect immigrants' economic welfaremore than they affect the native born. Immigrants'economic welfare, in turn, affects the timing,intensity and scope of their transnationaldevelopment activities. Although statistical analysisshows that compared to the United States and

systematically

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

SOME KEY ISSUES FOR POLICY RESEARCHON TRANSNATIONAL IMMIGRANTC O M M U N I T I E S A N D E C O N O M I CDEVELOPMENT IN THE CANADIAN CONTEXT

The Scope of Immigrants' Transnational Agency

Canada's Domestic Context and Immigrants'Transnational Agency

Canadian academicsand governmentpolicy researchershave been slow in

broadening thescope of migration

research (...)

7

Australia, Canada is the most receptive to immigrantsf r o m d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s ( R . R o b i n s o n ,forthcoming), there are labour market employmentpractices that are impediments to the robustness ofimmigrants' transnational organizing. Morespecifically, the internal structure and functioning ofthe labour markets and institutions, still impedes theso-called “visible minority” and female immigrantsaccess to employment opportunities commensuratewith their education, skills, and experience. Labourmarket structural and institutional impedimentsshape the timing, contours, scale and stability ofimmigrants' transnational development activities byinhibiting immigrants' employment and earningsgrowth. Consequently, in addition to the economicand non-economic dimensions of migranttransnationalism, policymakers need to be sensitizedto, and advised on, the underlying causal relationshipbetween the host-countries' domestic policies andimmigrants' transnational organizing, and theimpacts of these policies on poor countries'development via the scope and intensity of theirtransnational development activities.

Canada is, reportedly, one of the industrialcountries committed to the MDGs. Goal 8of the MDGs calls for “a globaldevelopment partnership” to addressp o v e r t y - r e d u c t i o n i n d e v e l o p i n gcountries. At the same time, net ODA andthe level of foreign investment flows tothe poorest countries are at an all-timelow. In the context of these developments,international development authorities and theircountry-level practitioners are wrestling with anumber of issues. These include strategies foraccelerating timely progress towards the MDGs;resources for financing sustainable attainment ofthose Goals; and the way attainment of those Goalswill impact different socio-economic groups in poorcountries. The potential contributions oftransnational immigrant communities to the MDGsattainment have not figured prominently andsystematically, as they should at the policy-level or infora discussions on strategies for financing theirsustainable attainment. Yet, the vast majority of thepeople at whose welfare improvement these Goalsseem targeted are poor families, children, relativesand friends that immigrants left behind in theirhomelands. If transnational migrant communities area significant development resource potential ascurrently perceived in the international developmentcommunity, then harnessing the development

resource potential embedded in these communitiesthrough strategic development partnerships basedupon a best practices' framework can significantlycontribute to acceleration of progress towards theMDGs.

Policy coherence is the positive interplay of variouspolicies at the national and international levels. Undercontemporary global izat ion, immigrat ion,integration, citizenship, labour market, trade,financial, foreign investment, ODA, agricultural, geo-political security and development policies areinexorably linked. Canadian policymakers need to besensitized and advised that within this mix, theemergence of migrant transnationalism as a globalphenomenon is a development that matters for bothmigrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries,rather than merely to Canadians. It is a phenomenonwhose structure is shaped by the policy actions ofauthorities in host and sending countries and by the

actions of migrants themselves. In anincreasingly globalized world, thequestion of policy coherence extends tomigrant transnationalism since prioritiesand objectives in the various policy areasshape modes of migrant transnationalismand its development outcomes. In somea r e a s o f p o l i c y t h e r e m a y b ecomplementarit ies and synergiesbetween migrant transnationalism andthe objectives to be achieved at both thenational and international levels, whereas

in other policy areas there may be tension. Thepotential for complementarities, synergies andtensions suggests a need to integrate migranttransnationalism within the architecture of nationaland international policies. In this way, it might bepossible to more accurately assess the feasible scopeof the potential contribution of transnational migrantcommunities to sustainable attainment of thoseobjectives and identify best practices' options tomaximize that contribution.

There is an abundance of research data andpublications on remittance flows from otherdeveloped countries to developing countries. Suchinformation on remittance flows from Canada is non-existent. In a conversation with Statistics Canada in

19

2 0

21

Immigrants' Transnational Agency and theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Policy Coherence and Immigrants' TransnationalAgency

Remittances and Immigrants' Transnational Agency inthe Canadian Context

RECOMMENDATION: RESEARCH DIRECTION ONTRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES IN CANADA

(...) a need tointegrate migranttransnationalism

within thearchitecture ofnational and

international policies

8

2003 on the availability of remittance data, thatorganization was not even familiar with the termmigrant remittances and their relation to economicdevelopment in poor countries. When explained, theresponse was that Statistics Canada's mandate is an“inward”, not “outward” looking mandate. At thesame time, remittances from Canada are withdrawalsfrom the Canadian economy and injections into poorcountries' economies. The withdrawals and theinjections affect national income growth on bothsides, albeit in different ways. In this regard,policymakers need to be sensitized to, and advised onwhether Canada's total net foreign aid to poorcountries in any one-year exceeds total netremittance flows from Canada in that same year (aswell as over time) and whether the economic benefitsof immigration from poor countries to Canada comeat the expense of the economic benefits to poorcountries. Such a study would give significantindications as to whether the Canadian economybenefits more from immigration than poor countries.Such indications are not possible from fashionable ad-hoc surveys designed to merely count upremittance dollars and re-cycle US-basedremittance market information.

Migrant transnationalism is multi-dimensional in scope and intensity.Therefore, financial remittance flows arenot the only dimension of migrants' transnationalagency. Although remittances flows from the majorimmigrant receiving countries and their uses inemigration countries have been widely investigated,there is a very large deficit of quantitative andqualitative research information on remittance-induced bilateral trade flows, investment, labourmarket, corporate capital mobility, and emergingsecurities market developments. There are also thedimensions of social and technological remittances,and immigrants' transnational political participation.Hence, the measurable development scope ofmigrants' transnational agency remains solidlyunderinvestigated.

In addition to foreign aid, trade and investment,international migration is a key area in which theimpacts of Canada's domestic and foreign policy onthe prospects of poor countries can be fruitfullymeasured and assessed. Excluding immigrants fromrich countries, 12.6% of the total population of Canada

comes from developing countries. This implies a two-way flow of human and financial resources from apoor to a rich country. Yet, to date, the measurementand assessment has been in the direction of theeconomic impacts of immigrants on the Canadianeconomy and society in the interest of perfectingimmigration and integration policies to give Canada agreater competitive edge in the global economy. In aglobal context, Canada's domestic and internationalpolicies cannot be only “pro-Canada”, although this isunderstandable. Consequently, policymakers need tobe sensitized to, and be advised of, Canada's domesticand foreign policies on poverty reduction and growthprospects of developing countries, than currentresearch on aid, trade, investment and immigranteconomic assimilation permits.

Although migrant transnationalism is a relativelyyoung and evolving field of academic theorizing andresearch investigation, there is a tendency in the

existing ethnographic literature to treatthe immigrant communities studied assimilar and homogenous in structure andto generalize across regions and countriesto those not studied. While such anapproach is useful, it is not universallyu s e f u l f r o m t h e s t a n d p o i n t o fdevelopment policy and practice.Transnational immigrant communities

are not homogenous in character, and neither arethey structurally similar across countries and regions.For example, the Dominican Republic and El Salvadorimmigrant communities may share the same culturaland linguistic heritage, but the scope and intensity oftransnational practices within these communitiesmay be quite different. As another example, Africanand Caribbean immigrant communities may be ofsimilar ethnic or racial heritage, but there is no reasonto assume , that generalizations about theadaptation experiences and transnational practices ofCaribbean immigrants can be fruitfully extended toAfrican immigrant communities and vice versa. Notmuch insight of significant policy value can be gainedfrom generalizations and conclusions about onetransnational immigrant community extended toanother that may be otherwise quite different inadaptation experiences and transnational economic,political and socio-cultural behaviour. Therefore, theapproach proposed is not to focus only on one regionor one or two immigrant communities from the sameregion, but rather, an approach that emphasizesregional, across regions, within regions and cross-

The Multidimensionality of Immigrants'Transnational Agency

The Impacts of Canada's Domestic and Foreign Policieson Poor Countries' Development

A Multidisciplinary Comparative Quantitative andQualitative Research Framework

22

a priori

(...) Canada'sdomestic and

international policiescannot be only

“pro-Canada” (...)

9

national comparisons. Consequently, the efficacy ofp o l i c y f o r m u l a t i o n r e s p e c t i n g m i g r a n ttransnationalism and economic development wouldbe better guided by multi-country, regional and cross-region comparative case study analysis oftransnational immigrant communities within andacross destination countries and their developmentconsequences within and across countries ofemigration.

A comparative research enterprise of the type andscale proposed would warrant a multidisciplinaryapproach and institutional collaboration amongacademic institutions and policy researchorganizations with strong financial support fromgovernment and private foundations. The realbeneficiaries would be the Canadian populationincluding immigrant communities, immigrants' non-migrant families, and governments of emigrationcountries. The target audience would include theCanadian Government, bilateral and multilateraldevelopment agencies, supranational,inter-governmental agencies, civil societya c t o r s a n d o t h e r d e v e l o p m e n tp r a c t i t i o n e r s , r e m i t t a n c e m a r k e toperators, business leaders, policy researchorganizations, academic institutions andfoundations that finance applied socialscience research projects.

Two integrated goals should motivate sucha multidisciplinary research enterprise. Thefirst would be to establish the existence oftransnational immigrant communities inCanada. This would include the number,type, and characteristics of transnationalactors, delimiting the scope and regularity of theirborder-spanning economic, political, philanthropic,and cultural activities. It would also includeidentification and empirical analysis of the underlyingcausal processes and structures of these activities. Theobjective would be to develop and provide the realb e n e f i c i a r i e s a n d t a r g e t a u d i e n c e w i t hmultidisciplinary comparative analysis of the actualand potential cumulative development consequencesof migrant transnationalism for the LAC, Asian,Middle-Eastern and African countries. The secondwould be to provide the real beneficiaries and targetaudience with a framework of practical policies onbest practices. The objective would be to initiate,facilitate and enhance development partnershipsbetween transnational migrant communities andtheir home-country governments on the one hand,and between transnational migrant communities andinternational development agencies on the other.

Transnational immigrant communities are agrassroots level phenomenon and uniquely a productof contemporary globalization processes. They arecommunities of migrants who have not abandonedtheir homelands when they resettle, integrate andbecome citizens in their new country, as traditionalmigration theory predicted. Instead, they haveutilized the tools of globalization, which are alsoutilized by multinational corporationsmoderntelecommunications, transportation and a globalfinancial infrastructureto forge, maintain and expandtheir social, economic and political ties at thegrassroots level in their communities of origin in theirhomelands. Transnational migrants distribute theirtime, money, resources and loyalty between their hostand home countries simultaneously. By distributingportion of their time, money and loyalty to theircommunities of origin in their homelands,transnational immigrants positively contribute to

poverty reduction and growth at thegrassroots level in their homelands.International development authoritiestogether with governments of thee m i g r a t i o n c o u n t r i e s p e r c e i v etransnational immigrant communities as asignificant source of untapped resourcesfor financing sustainable development inpoor countries. Accordingly, they havelaunched a number of initiatives to tap intothe development resources embedded inthese communities. These initiatives focuson remittance market developmentfacilitative of economic development inmigrant-sending countries. However, the

expansion of the remittance market is only onemanifestation of the emergence of transnationalimmigrant communities as development agents.Bilateral trade flows, transnational investments,labour market employment growth, capital mobility,securities market development and rural social andeconomic development are other dimensions ofglobal import.

Along with the United States and Australia, Canada isone of the three countries in the world with the largestimmigrant population. As a proportion of itspopulation, Canada admits relatively moreimmigrants from all regions of the world than theUnited States, and more significantly, relatively moreimmigrants from poor countries than either theUnited States or Australia as a proportion of its totalimmigrant population. This makes Canada the leaderin the international migration market. Yet, despite itsleadership position, its membership in the

CONCLUSIONS

(...) the expansion ofthe remittance

market is only onemanifestation of the

emergence oftransnational

immigrantcommunities as

development agents

10

international development community and theimportance of migrant transnationalism to itsdomestic and international policies, Canada isnoticeably on the sidelines in both transnationalmigrant community research and initiatives tomaximize the contribution of its immigrantcommunities to development in poor countries. Onereason is the “inward-oriented” (State-centric)approach to migration studies that dominate theimmigration and immigrant adaptation discourse atthe policy, academic and popular levels in Canada.

Migrant transnationalism can be viewed as analternative mode of immigrant adaptation. Therefore,in an increasingly globalized world, the immigrationand immigrant adaptation discourse cannot only be“Canada-centric”. Canadian domestic, internationaldevelopment, foreign trade, investment, geo-politicalsecurity policies and migrant transnationalism areinexorably linked. Consequently, policymakers needto be sensitized and advised through policy researchon transnational migrant communities in Canada ofthese linkages and how to maximize them in a waythat contributes to enhancement of Canada's role inan increasingly globalized world.

1. D. Terry (2004) “Latin America and CaribbeanRemittances: The Next Five Years”, MultinationalInvestment Fund, Inter-American Development Bank

2. Alejandro Portes (2003), “Conclusion: TheoreticalConvergences and Empirical Evidence in the Study ofImmigrant Transnationalism”,

, Vol. 37(3)

3. Alejandro Portes (2003), “Conclusions: TheoreticalConvergences and Empirical Evidence in the Study ofImmigrant Transnationalism”,

Vol. 37 (3)

4. See for example, John Biles and M. Burstein (2003),“Immigration: Economics and More”,

, MetropolisInstitute and Institute on Governance

5. “Financing for Sustainable Development”,(2002)

6. Jobs that involve dirty, demanding and dangerous work

7. See for example, N. Sorensen (2004), “The DevelopmentDimension of Migrant Remittances”, Working PaperSeries, No. 1, IOM; (2003D. Terry (2004), “Latin Americaand Caribbean Remittances: The Next Five Years”,Multilateral Investment Fund, IDB; Dilip Ratha (2003)“Workers' Remittances: An Important and Stable Sourceof External Development Finance”, Global DevelopmentFinance, World Bank.

8. Phuong Ly (2004) “Many graduate from supportingfamily to funding 'philanthropies' ” (The WashingtonPost Company, Washington D.C. Some sections of theUS media also worry that the volume of migrantremittances are draining US communities of moniesthat could be used to expand their wealth (See“Remittances Becoming More Entrenched: TheWorldwide Cash Flow continues to Grow” at

(June 2004), A White House Document, Washington, DC

10. Washington File (September 2002), United StatesDepartment of State.

11. Dilip Ratha, ibid.

12. L. Goldring, S. Henders and P. Vandergeest (2003), “ThePolitics of Transnational Ties: Implications for Policy,Research, and Communities”, YCAR-CERLAC WorkshopReport, York University, Toronto

13. L. Goldring, S. Henders and P. Vandergeest, ibid.However, Professors Luin Goldring (York University) andPatricia Landolt (Toronto University) have initiated aresearch project designed to systematically investigatetransnational practices among Central Americanimmigrant communities in Canada that will contributeto mitigation of this problem.

14. See for example, L. Guarnizo (2003), “The Economics ofTransnational Living”.3(37); S. Ketkar and D. Ratha (2001), DevelopmentFinancing During a Crisis: Securitization of FutureReceivables”, Policy Research Working Paper 2582.World Bank, Washington, D.C.; M. Orozco (2003), “RuralFinance Innovative Case Study: Remittances, the RuralSector, and Policy Options in Latin America, Inter-American Dialogue and Migration Policy Institute.

15. S. Nichols (2002), “Another Kind of Remittance: Transferof Agricultural Innovations by Migrants to TheirCommunities of Origin”. Paper presented at the SecondColloquium on International Migration (University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. Peggy Levitt (1996) “SocialRemittance: A Conceptual Tool for UnderstandingMigration and Development, Harvard UniversityWorking Paper Series 96.04

16. L. Goldring (2003), “Re-thinking Remittances: Social andPolitical Dimensions of Individual and CollectiveRemittances” CERLAC Working Paper Series, YorkUniversity

17. See for example: E. Ostergaard-Neilsen (2001), “ThePolitics of Migrants' Transnational Political Practices”Paper presented at Conference on TransnationalMigration: Comparative Perspectives, PrincetonUniversity; J. Opiniano (2002), “The Dynamics ofTransnational Philanthropy by Migrant Workers to TheirCommunities of Origin: The Case of Pozorrubio,Philippines, Paper presented to the Fifth InternationalSociety for Third-Sector Research, University of CapeTown, South Africa

International MigrationReview

International MigrationReview

Canadian Issues:Immigration: Opportunities and Challenges

InternationalInstitute for Environment and Development

http://.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/remittances.html

9. Global Poverty Action Plan Approved by the G8 Leaders

International Migration ReviewREFERENCES_______________

11

18. Luis E. Guarnizo, ibid.

19. Biles and Burstein, ibid.

20. Inter-American Consultation on Race and Ethnicity

21. House of Commons (UK) International DevelopmentCommittee, Migration and Development: How to makeMigration work for Poverty Reduction, Sixth Report ofSession 2003-04, Volume 1

22. Canada charges a sum payable to the Receiver Generalfrom anywhere between CAD2,000 to CAD400,000 forlanded immigrant status, depending on (a) the class ofimmigrants, and (b) the size of the family grantedlanded immigrant status as a family unit. For example,investor class immigrants must have net worth of up toCAD1,000,000, and invest a minimum of CAD400,000for a mandatory period of 5 years in a CanadianGovernment approved business in Canada. This sum isrepayable without interest 30 days after the expiry ofthe mandatory 5 years.

About the Author:Rudi Robinson is Senior Researcher (Trade, Immigration, Labour Markets and Economic Development Program)at the North-South Institute, Ottawa, Canada.

ISBN: 1-894992-12-1

Publications Mail Agreement: 40012931

The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is an independent, non-governmental organization thatfosters informed and timely debate and dialogue on issues of importance to decision-makers and opinion leadersin Canada and throughout the western hemisphere. Established in 1990, FOCAL's mission is to develop a greaterunderstanding of important hemispheric issues and help to build a stronger community of the Americas.

The preparation and printing of this paper has been made possible thanks to support from the Department ofForeign Affairs and International Trade and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Additional copies of this policy paper may be obtained from the FOCAL web site (www.focal.ca)

October 2004