Impacts of social remittances on economic activities: labour migration from a village of Bangladesh to Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article attempts to explore the impacts of ‘social remittances’ on the economic activities of households belonging to labour migrants who migrate from a village of Bangladesh to Malaysia on temporary contractual basis. It reveals that there has been a clear difference of social remittance impacts on the economic activities between the first-cycle migrants and the repeat-cycle migrants. The economic activities of first-cycle migrants are not impacted by social remittances while the economic activities of repeat-cycle migrants are limitedly impacted. In understanding the dynamics of social remittance impacts, the article applies a conceptual framework of ‘social remittances’ explained by Peggy Levitt and rationalises it through migration governance of Malaysia and some factors, directly and indirectly related to migration governance, and other factors. The study conducts in-depth interviews on 20 first-cycle and repeat-cycle migrants who were from Madhupur Village of Bangladesh in 2011 and revisited the village in 2018.