Jana Hasalová: Social Remittances:an alternative approach to development cooperation (presentation), Študentská vedecká konferencia Prírodovedeckej fakulty Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave, 27th April 2011

1. Social Remittances:
an alternative approach to
development cooperation
Jana Hasalová
Študentská vedecká konferencia 2011
Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave
Prírodovedecká fakulta
27th April 2011

2. Reasons for seeking of
development alternatives
• Global system of Official Development Aid
vs.
- inefficiency
- lack of political leadership
- unclear power relations to receiving
countries
- decreasing budget at the time of economic
downturn

3. Research on Remitting Activities of
Migrants
• Migration as phenomenon influenced by global economic
sytem
- presumption of rational economic actors in the system
- assessment of remittances as economic developmental
tool
- search for „effective use“
Vs.
- reflection of social aspects of migrants´ lives
- transnational reality
- going beyond financial, family, kin and ethnic bonds

4. Concept of Social Remittances
“material and nonmaterial transfers such as
skills, know-how, knowledge, techniques,
methods and values used for and by wider
community exceeding the family
relationships; submitted by individuals or
groups of international migrants or
refugees and used in various forms of
collective projects with the motivation of
giving back to the community and
improving its welfare”

5. Post-developmental Character of
Social Remitting
• Turn of development policies towards inclusion
of receivers
- community-based projects
- self-sustainable
- small scale projects
- based on needs and skills of the local
community
- possibility to create alternative power structures
and channels of development
- emancipation of local communities marginalized
in the global system of development cooperation

6. Antigeopolitical Character of Social
Remitting
• “transnationalism from below”
- the specific local grassroots reactions to the processes
of globalization enabling the use of personal potential of
individuals and communities
- projects according to the needs and requirements of the
local communities insufficiently involved in the official
development networks
Vs.
- marginalization of migrants in the social, political and
economic structures of the host countries
- need of recognition of their personal agency, intellectual,
manual and organizational skills, experience and
expertise