Money Flows

Remittances, the repatriated earnings of emigrant workers, have risen spectacularly in recent decades. They are a crucial lifeline for the households that receive them and one of the largest sources of capital for developing economies, outstripping both aid and foreign direct investment. Money Flows studies how remittances shape the relationship between remittance recipients and the authorities in migrant-sending countries by providing a comprehensive study of the political effects of remittances on the attitudes of their recipients. It argues that far from being an exclusively economic risk-sharing mechanism between poorer, migrant-sending, and richer, migrant-receiving economies, remittances may compromise rudimentary accountability mechanisms in the developing world. The book leverages survey data from Central-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia and original focus groups from Kyrgyzstan. It shows how remittances, and fluctuations in their volume, colour recipients' economic evaluations; shape the burden of corruption; and change how recipients interact with, and view their state, ultimately impacting the approval function of the authorities.