Sending Money Home to India: Family, Community and Belonging

1. Sending Money Home to India: Family, Community and Belonging By Supriya Singh, Anuja Cabraal & Shanthi Robertson Presentation at the Asia @ RMIT Seminar Series, 12 November 2009

2. Why focus on sending money home? • In 2008, an estimated $US $283  billion was remitted to developing countries. Total world remittances in 2007 were $US 337 billion. Informal remittances account for another 20-50%. • Formal and informal remittances are greater than ‘foreign direct investment flows and more than twice as large as official aid received by developing countries. Remittances are the largest source of external financing in many developing countries (Development Prospects Group, 2007, p. 1). • Remittances include different kinds of monies that flow from migrants to their families. These include regular amounts of money that are important for the family budget; money sent for particular investments, such as the purchase of land or the building of a house; money for community development purposes, like the building of a temple or mosque; repayment of family debt; and gift money for family celebrations. School of Accounting & Law

3. Top  10  remittance‐recipient  developing  countries  in  2008

4. Our Approach • We aim to complement the predominantly economic focus of remittance studies with a sociological study of money, family, community and belonging. • Money is a medium of relationship. Migrants send money home as one way of maintaining relationships with their transnational family. • We study direct and multiple migrants, thus charting the process of migration than any discrete event. • Community remittances are also a channel used for continued belonging. • Remittances connect macro flows at the national level with household budgets. They are the most evident face of globalisation at the personal and household level. School of Accounting & Law

5. Our Study • An ongoing qualitative study based on participant observation, open ended interviews and group interviews. • First part of the study is with 19 familial migrants from India and the Indian diaspora to Australia. It includes both direct migrants from India and those who have moved to Australia from Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Kenya. • The first part of the study focuses on familial remittances. It privileges the perspectives of the migrants to Australia over those who have remained behind. We have focused as yet mainly on Hindus and Sikhs from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. • Our study is being extended to - community remittances - international students from India and - the ‘1.5 generation’ to 2.0 generation - multi-sited ethnography. School of Accounting & Law

6. Money as a medium of relationships Money, together with communication and visits home help maintain relationships with the transnational family. When is money sent home? • Financial support for family in the home country • Sent by the male in the household • Gift money for special occasions • Weddings, funerals, birthdays • Visits to the home country • Give gifts or cash School of Accounting & Law

7. The Transnational Family • When a person moves, the migrants and the people left behind become part of a transnational family. • Family connections • Family boundaries narrow. People may still be close to brothers and sisters, but lose contact with members of extended family. • The family becomes even more nuclear with the second generation, though there may be online communication. When does a family cease to be a transnational family? School of Accounting & Law

8. Community • Community/collective remittances are monies that flow to community development projects. These are also instances of diaspora philanthropy: “for purposes of charitable, social, economic, cultural, religious and other forms of development as distinct from family relief, business investment, and other forms of remittances” (Sidel 2008) • Social & political dimension of remittances: status, social capital, marker of belonging • Multiple identities: how do class/gender/region/religion/migration history/language/ethnicity impact on giving? • Mediating institutions and channels become important • Formal or informal (Informal Money Transfer Systems, community associations, family trusts, face to face, NGOs, professional networks, charities, religious organisations). • Issues of transparency and accountability. • Remittances and diaspora philanthropy as ‘suspect practices’ (post 9/11) School of Accounting & Law

9. Questions of Belonging • The trigger points that make a person question where he or she belongs are family cycle celebrations, sickness, death and inheritance. • Inheritance: • There are silences around inheritance, as the issue can evoke feelings of a lack of belonging. In some cases we learnt of it from other members of the family. • Migrant men in our study opted out of their share of inheritance, or were not offered a share. Women, as in India ceded their inheritance in favour of their brothers. • We do not yet know whether issues of belonging to the family and community differ for direct and multiple migrants. • Does belonging to Australia change the yearning for family in the home country? • When do issues of belonging for migrants become similar to issues of belonging for everybody? • How do belonging and identity intersect? School of Accounting & Law