Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/106785
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Type: Theses
Title: The impact of migration and remittances on home communities in Ethiopia
Author: Zewdu, Girmachew Adugna
Issue Date: 2014
School/Discipline: School of Social Sciences
Abstract: The money that migrants send, both individually and collectively, and other transnational engagements have become an area of increasing research and policy interest, although little studied in Ethiopia. This thesis investigates the social and economic impacts of migration and remittances on families and communities left behind in Ethiopia. A mixed methods approach is adopted involving the collection of both quantitative and qualitative information including a survey of 544 migrant households in Gondar, a northern Ethiopian city which has been an important source of emigrants since the late 1970s. For comparison, the study also examines the pattern of migration and remittances in the Hadiya and Kembata villages in South Ethiopia, an emerging emigrant community that sends migrants predominantly to South Africa. In Ethiopia, large scale cross-border migration has increased, especially in the last decade, and become more complex. Migrant families maintain strong family ties through diverse communication media, and by visiting both in Ethiopia and overseas. The frequency and intensity of remittance flows is high, and are increasingly sent beyond the immediate family circle. The findings suggest that remittances need to be seen not only as a consequence of migration, but also as a main driver of the movement. Both continuity and change are observed in the use and impact of remittances over time. The balance of remittance utilisation has changed from a focus on daily subsistence and social events to more investment in housing, business, education and family migration over the past decade. The emergence of a private sector, expansion of infrastructure, and diaspora incentive packages have helped encourage investment. However, incentive packages that have political rather than economic purposes, incur costs in the community of origin and are increasingly subject to abuse and corruption. Migration has not only transformed household livelihoods, but also boosted their social standing. Remittances also trigger rural-urban migration and reduce people’s aspirations to work and study, increase unemployment and school dropout rates, and can lead to family disputes. The study provides insights into why some households transform themselves from a ‘consuming’ to an ‘investing’ entity, while others continue to depend on remittances for subsistence. Transnational families support local inhabitants to emigrate abroad through providing money and information and by arranging loans and transnational marriages. Inter-household resource transfers, especially in the form of loans increasingly help local inhabitants to meet daily subsistence; cope with crises; set up businesses, and send children to school. They can make finance available for community projects. The thesis also explores the different ways remittances are tied to the local economy. The diaspora has forged cooperative linkages between host cites and hometowns through which monetary and non-monetary resources are channelled from the former to the latter. The role of origin communities in constructing and reconstructing this transnational network, which is often ignored in the theorization of transnationalism, is emphasised.
Advisor: Hugo, Graeme John
Rudd, Dianne M.
Dissertation Note: Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2014.
Keywords: international migration
remittances
Hometown Associations
diaspora
development
Ethiopia
Provenance: This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals
DOI: 10.4225/55/598d0365e680f
Appears in Collections:Research Theses

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