ABSTRACT
In 1907 immigrants in America sent $275 million (about $6 billion in today’s currency) through 2,625 money agents in grocers, bakers and other shops (The Economist 2007a). Recent estimates of global remittances sent by migrants exceed $300 billion (IFAD 2007). Clearly there are and have always been significant economic aspects of migration and transnationalism; this is not surprising since economic considerations are often the prime reasons why migrants move in the first place. Yet economic aspects of transnationalism take many forms and have myriad consequences (economic ones to be sure, but also social and political ones). This chapter considers several of these forms and consequences.
