Emotional Earmarking: Insights into Remittances and Emotions from a Mixed Methods Study of Migrant Households in Rural Philippines

Overseas remittances improve the economic conditions and influence the financial behaviors of international migrants’ families that remain in the country of origin. Remittances affect family relationships in the hometown and across transnational borders, but migration research has not yet analyzed these family dynamics through the lens of household finance. Recent studies address the remittance–emotion nexus partially and statically rather than holistically and dynamically, delivering an insufficient understanding of complex and evolving links mediated by the sending, using, and investing of remittances. Built on an existing family financial socialization model, and using mixed methods for case studies in two rural municipalities of the Philippines, this study sets out to determine how emotions come into play as families strive to use remittances productively. A central finding is that migrant households employ what we call emotional earmarking to bring about economic benefits along with concurrent emotional benefits to family relationships. This emotional earmarking can help families (as well as migration and development stakeholders) in the productive use of remittances and the maintenance of family connections despite the physical absence of migrant members.