Description:
"...It is clear that remittances send to Burma are both intended and utilised for the daily survival of migrant sending
families. Studies of remittance use by families in Burma show that the majority of money received is spent
on daily living expenses, followed by expenditure on housing, education and health.37 This demonstrates the
intensity of poverty within Burma and the dependency on migrant families for remittances to sustain basic survival.
Additionally one study found that a significant proportion of migrant-sending families in Burma (over
a third of those in the study) also used remittance funds for coerced payment to security officers including
military and police, demonstrating the state of insecurity and violation that families in Burma continue to live
with.38 The studies found that the majority of families in Burma were not able to use the remittance money for
income generating activities or investments, either because there was insufficient money left over after spending
on daily needs, or due to the fact that there are limited opportunities for productive investment due to weak
infrastructure and wide-spread poverty within sending communities.39 It appears that despite migration and
remittance sending over a period from three to ten years there has been no significant industry, income generation
or economic improvements within the villages and home communities of Burmese migrants in Thailand.40
These studies suggest that any local or national economic development benefit derived from remittances are
largely absent in the Burma context due to the political economy which undermines these processes..."
Source/publisher:
CARAM-Asia (Coordination of Action Research on AIDS & Mobility)
Date of Publication:
2010-10-00
Date of entry:
2010-12-28
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf pdf
Size:
311.88 KB 7.58 MB