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Remittances

Gender, remittances and development: preliminary findings from selected SADC countries

Linkages between gender, migrancy, remittances in the SADC countries

Authors: T. Hughes; A. Kajee; S. Peberdy; UN-INSTRAW
Publisher: South African Institute of International Affairs, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2008

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With a focus on the research gaps on African migration, this paper offers a general overview of migration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It also looks at remittance flows, the African, SADC, and national political contexts and the links between HIV/AIDS, migratory flows and remittances.

It is argued that though there is no scarcity of research on migration in SADC, existing research is highly weighted towards understanding male migration to the mining and agricultural sectors in South Africa, which has left significant gaps in information and analysis. The paper demonstrates the importance of migration and remittances to households in SADC. However, it also shows that no single extant study successfully or satisfactorily explains the linkages between gender, migrancy, remittances and development in or between SADC countries. The paper suggests that most of the individual elements for such research are already in place. Thus any satisfactory or heuristic research into female migrant remittances and development in SADC will need to be framed with this specific research question in mind.

The paper concludes highlighting some of the key areas where gaps exist. These include:

  • national sex-disaggregated data and analysis - to better understand the relationships between gender, migration and remittances in SADC it would be useful to have access to the sex-disaggregated data on national and migrant populations
  • household formation and dynamics - it would be most useful if this information were available for non-migrant households in countries of origin and destination, migrant-sending households and migrant households in destination countries
  • migration patterns and flows - although some information is available on migration patterns and flows there are some significant gaps in available information
  • migration experiences - better understanding of how gender affects migrant experiences could assist in exploring the impact of migration and development.