Abstract Although the “economics of remittance” studied the role of migrants’ savings to finance the local development, no attention had been paid to the relation between migration patterns and the economic development of the origin communities. An answer to the question if different kinds of migration can have different impacts on the Local Economic Development in the South East Mediterranean, is provided by this paper. The starting point of the analysis is the assessment of the Local Economic Development (LED) as a social, institutional and economic process realized on a territory distressed, at the same time, by a twofold need: to push out the dynamic part of its population and to be the incubator of new economic activities. According to the literature on remittance the conditions and the potentialities of such a territorial community can change if migrant’s savings are not fritted away by recipient’s households but channelled towards productive uses in origin community: the financial flows created by remittance may have a positive impact on the growth and diversification of local economies, promoting new investments and economic initiatives. On one hand, if remittance are a form of additional liquidity for providing funds for productive uses and investments, on the other they can lead to an increase of private expenditure in areas considered to be important for development (such as education and health). Furthermore the acquisition of skills and abilities through migration can be considered as another form of productive investment for the return migrants, because skills acquired abroad act as a self-selection mechanism for employment choice, as well as for suggesting a potential investment of the savings in private activities. An appraisal of the two migration patterns in the Mediterranean (the South-North flow from Maghreb to Europe and the South-South stream from Mashreq to the Gulf), shows the existence of different skills endowments along with the two patterns of migration. South-North is generally a permanent-low-skilled (but sometimes not low-educated) population transfer whose remittances have scarce effects on the local development of origin communities. Instead, the South-South migration flows are of temporary-high-skilled workers who use remittances and skills acquired to implement new economic activities coming home.
Beyond remittances in Mediterranean: what migration pattern for LED?
MENGONI, LUISA;ROMAGNOLI, ALESSANDRO
2007
Abstract
Abstract Although the “economics of remittance” studied the role of migrants’ savings to finance the local development, no attention had been paid to the relation between migration patterns and the economic development of the origin communities. An answer to the question if different kinds of migration can have different impacts on the Local Economic Development in the South East Mediterranean, is provided by this paper. The starting point of the analysis is the assessment of the Local Economic Development (LED) as a social, institutional and economic process realized on a territory distressed, at the same time, by a twofold need: to push out the dynamic part of its population and to be the incubator of new economic activities. According to the literature on remittance the conditions and the potentialities of such a territorial community can change if migrant’s savings are not fritted away by recipient’s households but channelled towards productive uses in origin community: the financial flows created by remittance may have a positive impact on the growth and diversification of local economies, promoting new investments and economic initiatives. On one hand, if remittance are a form of additional liquidity for providing funds for productive uses and investments, on the other they can lead to an increase of private expenditure in areas considered to be important for development (such as education and health). Furthermore the acquisition of skills and abilities through migration can be considered as another form of productive investment for the return migrants, because skills acquired abroad act as a self-selection mechanism for employment choice, as well as for suggesting a potential investment of the savings in private activities. An appraisal of the two migration patterns in the Mediterranean (the South-North flow from Maghreb to Europe and the South-South stream from Mashreq to the Gulf), shows the existence of different skills endowments along with the two patterns of migration. South-North is generally a permanent-low-skilled (but sometimes not low-educated) population transfer whose remittances have scarce effects on the local development of origin communities. Instead, the South-South migration flows are of temporary-high-skilled workers who use remittances and skills acquired to implement new economic activities coming home.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
