ABSTRACT
Depending on the region, between 70% and 95% of migrants send money back home to developing countries, constituting a flow upwards of US$500 billion annually. The economic contributions of migrants to development can be enhanced through strong frameworks and effective programmatic efforts that address development from a deterritorialized perspective in a way that looks at transnational households and transnational networks, with especial attention to the role of women. It is important that any policy intervention that leverages the transnational economic engagement be triangulated with the drivers that caused migration and with the fundamental development problems each migrant sending country faces. In turn, differentiated development strategies will capture the realities and the desired outcomes to be achieved. This approach is fundamentally important because it addresses various strategic needs. First, it integrates migrant capital investment and savings from remittances into the financial sector, further mobilizing these resources for local development in education, skill formation and (nostalgic) trade. Second, this strategy expands and complements – that is, does not replace – existing approaches to economic growth, and creates a new model for much-needed investments in services for the global economy. This chapter outlines this approach and provides examples of demonstrated impacts and proven strategies in several Latin American countries.
