Social remittance flows from female migrants: the cases of Bangladesh and Ethiopia

Abstract

This research analyzes two cases of adolescent female migration in the Global South for evidence of intangible values and ideas being remitted back to their places of origin. First, the fields of anthropology and migration and the studies of remittances and social remittances are introduced before presenting the ethnographic case studies of Ethiopia and Bangladesh. The paper then summarizes the contexts, findings, and constraints of each case before delving into Levitt’s theory of social remittances through migration. Social remittance theory is applied to the ethnographic cases to reveal evidence of the new or changed educational values, ideals about marriage and family, and other political, social, and cultural values that young women brought or sent back with them to their places of origin after migrating as adolescents within the Global South. This anthropologically-rooted study argues that social remittances, specifically values and ideas about gender inequality, education, and budgeting, with immense individual-level and community-level development potential are often facilitated by young female migration.