This project will generate new knowledge about remittances from immigrants in Norway, use Norwegian data to contribute to the international literature on remittances, and facilitate the development of remittance-related policies that better reconcile conflicting interests. By combining quantitative and qualitative data, the project will address the complex relationship between remittance-sending and integration. The project is guided by four research questions:
A strategic choice has been made to concentrate parts of the data collection and analysis on two immigrant groups: Pakistanis and Somalis. Such a choice is necessary in order to collect country-specific data also at the receiving end. It is widely recognized that remittance dynamics are affected by national factors at both ends of the transfer, and that so-called remittance corridors (e.g. Norway-Pakistan) are often the appropriate unit of analysis. The project team will conduct interviews with Pakistanis and Somalis and in Norway and fieldwork in Pakistan and East Africa
In addition to the in-depth study of transfers to Pakistan and Somalia, the project will make use of statistics from the Living Conditions of Immigrants (LKI) survey. The survey includes immigrants from ten countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Serbia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vietnam).
In Norway, questions of immigration have traditionally been a domestic affair. However, as an increasing number of Norwegian citizens with a migrant background are engaging in humanitarian aid and development initiatives in their countries of origin, questions of integration are tied to those of foreign policy. How do Norwegian authorities cope with the realities of migrants’ attachment to people and places beyond the Norwegian borders? How is Norwegian development policy to engage with migrants’ contributions to development and peace-building initiatives in their countries of origin?
PRIO researchers Marta Bivand Erdal and Rojan Ezzati discuss these issues in a blog post as part of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Refleks project. To read the blog post (in Norwegian), please follow this link.
A seminar on the same topic will be held at PRIO on Friday 16 November.
Marta Bivand Erdal has successfully defended her PhD in Human Geography at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo. The title of her dissertation is "Transnational ties and belonging: Remittances from Pakistani migrants in Norway".
PRIO organized the conference ‘Remittances, Integration and Development: The Debate Explored’. The aim of the conference was to explore the complex relationships between migrants’ remittance sending patterns, their level of integration and their contributions to development in the country of origin. More than 200 people took part.
Applications are invited for a two-month internship at PRIO (October-November 2007) within a research project on migrant remittances. Application deadline: 15 June. [Read more...]
PRIO and the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, are co-organizing a PhD course on Remittances and transnational livelihoods. Application deadline: 15 June. [Read more...]
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