Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:24:33.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Collective Remittances and Migrant-State Collaboration in Mexico and El Salvador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Abstract

As part of an emerging research agenda on the political impact of remittances in high-migration countries, this article explores the conditions under which organized migrants are likely to engage in transnational public-private partnerships with their home governments through a comparison of Mexico and El Salvador. Both countries have well-organized migrants who have cofinanced community projects back home. But this collaboration has been more sustained, multifaceted, and negotiated in Mexico than in El Salvador. These outcomes are linked to four factors: the density and type of migrant organizations, the territorial distribution of state authority and resources, the extent and nature of diaspora outreach, and legacies of state-society relations. The article discusses how this framework might be applied to other high-migration countries and whether there is room for agency in creating more favorable conditions for migrant-state collaboration.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdih, Yasser, Chami, Ralph, Dagher, Jihad, and Montiel, Peter. 2012. Remittances and Institutions: Are Remittances a Curse? World Development 40, 4: 657–66.Google Scholar
Ackerman, John. 2004. Co-Governance for Accountability: beyond “Exit” and “Voice.” World Development 32, 3: 447–63.Google Scholar
Adida, Claire L., and Girod, Desha M.. 2011. Do Migrants Improve Their Hometowns? Remittances and Access to Public Services in Mexico, 1995–2000. Comparative Political Studies 44, 1: 327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agunias, Dovelyn R., ed. 2009. Closing the Distance: How Governments Strengthen Ties with Their Diasporas. Washington, DC : Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Andrade-Eekhoff, Katharine, and Silva-Avalos, Claudia Marina. 2003. Globalization of the Periphery: The Challenges of Transnational Migration for Local Development in Central America. Working paper. San Salvador : FLACSO- El Salvador.Google Scholar
Aparicio, Francisco Javier, and Meseguer, Covadonga. 2012. Collective Remittances and the State: the 3 × 1 Program in Mexican Municipalities. World Development 40, 1 (January): 206–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bada, Xochitl, Fox, Jonathan, and Selee, Andrew, eds. 2006. Invisible No More: Mexican Migrant Participation in the United States. Washington, DC : Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Google Scholar
Basch, Linda, Schiller, Nina Glick, and Blanc-Szanton, Cristina. 1994. Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States. Langhorne, PA : Gordon and Breach.Google Scholar
Boruchoff, Judith. 2007. Transnational Perspectives on Migrant Civic and Political Engagement. Background paper prepared for the conference “Latin American Migrants: Civic and Political Participation in a Transnational Context,” Chicago, October 26–27.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina. 2004. Parties and Unions in the New Global Economy. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina. 2005. Migrant Philanthropy and Local Governance in Mexico. In New Patterns for Mexico: Observations on Remittances, Philanthropic Giving, and Equitable Development, ed. Merz, Barbara. Cambridge : Harvard University Press. 99155.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina. 2006. El impacto del 3 × 1 en la gobernanza local. In El Programa 3 × 1 para migrantes: ¿primera política transnacional en México? [The 3 × 1 Program for Migrants: First Transnational Policy in Mexico?], ed. de Castro, Rafael Fernández, García Zamora, Rodolfo, and Freyer, Ana Vila. Mexico City : ITAM/UAZ/Miguel Angel Porrúa. 99118.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina. 2011. Loyalty and Voice after Exit: Migrant Influence in New Democracies. Prepared for the workshop “Politics and Migration in Out-Migration Countries,” CIDE, Mexico City, September 23.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina, and Tinajero, Beatriz. 2009. Remittances as Non-State Transnational Transfers: Lessons from Mexico and El Salvador. International Studies Review 11, 2: 404–13.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina, and Tinajero, Beatriz. 2012. Collective Remittances as Non-State Transnational Transfers: Patterns of Transnationalism in Mexico and El Salvador. In Transnational Transfers and Global Development, ed. Brown, Stuart. New York : Palgrave. 2955.Google Scholar
Cabrera, Amadeo. 2010. Fmln propone ley para el “voto desde el exterior.” La Prensa Gráfica (San Salvador), October 7. http://6hk.s7.sl.pt.Google Scholar
Cano, Gustavo, and Délano, Alexandra. 2007. The Mexican Government and Organized Mexican Immigrants in the United States: a Historical Analysis of Political Transnationalism (1848–2005). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33, 5: 695725.Google Scholar
Castles, Stephen. 2007. Comparing the Experience of Five Major Emigration Countries. Working Paper no. 7. Oxford : International Migration Institute, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins, and Collier, David. 1991. Shaping The Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cortina, Jeronimo, and de la Garza, Rodolfo. 2004. Immigrant Remitting Behavior and Its Developmental Consequences for Mexico and El Salvador. Los Angeles : Tomás Rivera Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Délano, Alexandra. 2011. Mexico and Its Diaspora in the United States: Policies of Emigration Since 1848. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escala-Rabadán, Luis. 2004. Migración y formas organizativas en los Estados Unidos: los clubes y federaciones de migrantes mexicanos en California. In Lanly and Valenzuela V. 2004. 425–54.Google Scholar
Escala-Rabadán, Luis, Bada, Xochitl, and Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar. 2006. Mexican Migrant Civic and Political Participation in the U.S.: the Case of Hometown Associations in Los Angeles and Chicago. Norteamérica 1, 2: 127–72.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter. 1996. Government Action, Social Capital, and Development: Reviewing the Evidence on Synergy. World Development 24, 6: 1119–32.Google Scholar
Foley, Michael W. 1996. Laying the Groundwork: the Struggle for Civil Society in El Salvador. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 38, 1 (Spring): 67104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2005a. Mapping Mexican Civil Society. Background paper prepared for the conference “Mexican Migrant Civic and Political Participation,” Washington, DC, November 4–5.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2005b. Unpacking Transnational Citizenship. Annual Review of Political Science 8: 171201.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan, and Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar, eds. 2004. Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United States. La Jolla : Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies/Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Fox, Jonathan, and Bada, Xochitl. 2008. Migrant Organization and Hometown Impacts in Rural Mexico. Journal of Agrarian Change 8, 2–3: 435–61.Google Scholar
Galatowitsch, Diane. 2009. Co-development in Mali: A Case Study of a Development Phenomenon Exploited by Immigration Policy. Paper no. 737, Independent Study Project Collection. Brattleboro, VT : School for International Training Graduate Institute. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/737.Google Scholar
García y Griego, Manuel. 1988. Hacia una nueva visión del problema de los indocumentados en Estados Unidos. In México y Estados Unidos frente a la migración de los indocumentados, ed. García y, Griego and Campos, Mónica Verea. Mexico City : UNAM/Porrúa.Google Scholar
Goetz, Anne Marie, and Jenkins, Rob. 2005. Reinventing Accountability: Making Democracy Work for Human Development. New York : Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Goldring, Luin. 2002. The Mexican State and Transmigrant Organizations: Negotiating the Boundaries of Membership and Participation. Latin American Research Review 37, 3: 5599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldring, Luin. 2004. Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico: a Multi-dimensional Typology. Development and Change 35, 4: 799840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González Gutiérrez, Carlos. 2009. The Institute of Mexicans Abroad: An Effort to Empower the Diaspora. In Closing the Distance: How Governments Strengthen Ties with Their Diasporas, ed. Agunias, Dovelyn Rannveig. Washington, DC : Migration Policy Institute. 8798.Google Scholar
Goodman, Gary L., and Hiskey, Jonathan T.. 2008. Exit without Leaving: Political Disengagement in High Migration Municipalities in Mexico. Comparative Politics 40, 2 (January): 169–88.Google Scholar
Grindle, Merilee. 2007. Going Local: Decentralization, Democratization, and the Promise of Good Governance. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Guarnizo, Luis. 1998. The Rise of Transnational Social Formations: Mexican and Dominican State Responses to Transnational Migration. Political Power and Social Theory 12: 4594.Google Scholar
Guarnizo, Luis, Portes, Alejandro, and Haller, William. 2003. Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants. American Journal of Sociology 108, 6: 1211–48.Google Scholar
Das Gupta, Monica, Grandvoinnet, Helene, and Romani, Mattia. 2003. Fostering Community-driven Development: What Role For The State? World Bank Policy Research Paper 2969. Washington, DC : World Bank.Google Scholar
Enríquez, Alberto, Rodríguez, Marcos, de Grajeda, Flora Blandón, Cummings, Andrew, Paz, Rafael, and Moreno, María Elena. 2001. Desarrollo local y decentralización. Alternativos para el Desarrollo 73. San Salvador : Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo. http://www.repo.funde.org/id/eprint/126. Accessed September 13, 2012.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Nora, and Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. 2001. Seeking Community in a Global City: Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Instituto de Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME). 2011. Directorio de organizaciones y clubes de oriundos. Mexico City : IME. http://www.ime.gob.mx/directorioorganizaciones/busqueda.aspx.Google Scholar
Ionescu, Dina. 2006. Engaging Diasporas as Development Partners for Home and Destination Countries. Geneva : International Organization for Migration.Google Scholar
Iskander, Natasha. 2010. Creative State: Forty Years of Migration and Development Policy in Morocco and Mexico. Ithaca : Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Itzigsohn, José. 2000. Immigration and the Boundaries of Citizenship: the Institutions of Immigrants' Political Transnationalism. International Migration Review 34, 4: 1126–54.Google Scholar
Knight, Jack. 1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Landolt, Patricia, Autler, Lilian, and Baires, Sonia. 2001. From Hermano Lejano to Hermano Mayor: the Dialectics of Salvadoran Transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies 22, 2: 290315.Google Scholar
Lanly, Guillaume, and Basilia, M. Valenzuela, V., eds. 2004a. Clubes de migrantes oriundos mexicanos en los Estados Unidos: la política transnacional de la nueva sociedad civil migrante. Guadalajara : Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.Google Scholar
Lanly, Guillaume, and Hamann, Volker. 2004b. Solidaridades transfronterizas y la emergencia de una sociedad civil transnacional: la participación de dos clubes de migrantes en el desarrollo local del occidente de México. In Lanly and Valenzuela V. 2004a. 127–74.Google Scholar
Liamzon, Cristina. 2010. Enhancing the Giving Practices of Filipino Diaspora Groups Through Social Accountability Mechanisms: A Scoping Study. Manila : Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific.Google Scholar
Lieber, Matthew A. 2010. Elections beyond Borders: Overseas Voting in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, 1994–2008. Ph.D. diss., Brown University.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James. 2001. The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
McIlwaine, Cathy. 1998. Contesting Civil Society: Reflections from El Salvador. Third World Quarterly 19, 4: 651–72.Google Scholar
Mendoza López, Rafael. 2011. Funes ofrece voto exterior para 2014. El Diario de Hoy, September 15. http://6hl.c5.sl.pt.Google Scholar
Menjívar, Cecilia. 2000. Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America. Berkeley : University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nieswand, Boris. 2009. Development and Diaspora: Ghana and Its Migrants. Sociologus 59, 1: 1731.Google Scholar
North, Douglass Cecil. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nosthas, Ernesto. 2006. El caso de El Salvador: Programa Unidos por la Solidaridad. In El Programa 3 × 1 para migrantes: ¿primera política transnacional en México? (The 3 × 1 Program for Migrants: First Transnational Policy in Mexico?), ed. de Castro, Rafael Fernández, García Zamora, Rodolfo, and Freyer, Ana Vila. Mexico City : ITAM/UAZ/Miguel Angel Porrúa. 4559.Google Scholar
Orozco, Manuel. 2003. Hometown Associations and Their Present and Future Partnerships: New Development Opportunities? Report commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Washington, DC : Interamerican Development Bank. http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=558754.Google Scholar
Orozco, Manuel. 2006. Diasporas, Philanthropy, and Hometown Associations: the Central American Experience. Unpublished mss.Google Scholar
Orozco, Manuel. 2009. Remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean: Their Impact on Local Economies and the Response of Local Governments. Unpublished mss.Google Scholar
Orozco, Manuel, and Rouse, Rebecca. 2007. Migrant Hometown Associations and Opportunities for Development: A Global Perspective. Washington, DC : Migration Information Source.Google Scholar
Palafox, Germán. 2009. Program 3 × 1 for Migrants. Paper prepared for UNCTAD Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on Contribution of Migrants to Development: Trade, Investment, and Development Linkages. Geneva, July 29.Google Scholar
Popkin, Eric. 2003. Transnational Migration and Development in Postwar Peripheral States: an Examination of Guatemalan and Salvadoran State Linkages with Their Migrant Populations in Los Angeles. Current Sociology 51, 3–4: 347–74.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, Escobar, Cristina, and Radford, Alexandria Walton. 2007. Immigrant Transnational Organizations and Development: a Comparative Study. International Migration Review 41, 1 (Spring): 242–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, Guarnizo, Luis, and Landolt, Patricia. 1999. The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field. Ethnic and Racial Studies 22, 2: 217–37.Google Scholar
Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar, and Escala-Rabadán, Luis. 2004. Collective Identity and Organizational Strategies of Indigenous and Mestizo Mexican Migrants. In Fox and Rivera-Salgado 2004. 145–78.Google Scholar
Salvadoreños en el Mundo (SEEM). 2008. Salvadoreños en el mundo. Briefing paper presented to the Secretary of the Committee on Migrant Workers, April 14. Geneva : United Nations. http://6i3.2u.sl.pt.Google Scholar
Salzbrunn, Monika. 2009. Glocal Migration and Transnational Politics: The Case of Senegal. Global Migration and Transnational Politics Working Paper no. 8. Fairfax, VA : Center for Global Studies, George Mason University. September. http://cgs.gmu.edu/publications/gmtpwp/gmtp_wp_8.pdf Accessed July 21, 2011.Google Scholar
Schiller, Nina Glick, Basch, Linda, and Blanc-Szanton, Cristina. 1995. From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration. Anthropological Quarterly 68, 1: 4863.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael P., and Bakker, Matt. 2008. Citizenship Across Borders: The Political Transnationalism of El Migrante. Ithaca : Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert C. 2003. Migrant Membership as an Instituted Process: Transnationalization, the State and the Extra-Territorial Conduct of Mexican Politics. International Migration Review 37, 2: 297343.Google Scholar
Social Investment Fund for Local Development (FISDL). 2005. Internal database on Unidos projects.Google Scholar
Solomon, M. Scott. 2009. State-led Migration, Democratic Legitimacy, and Deterritorialization: the Philippines' Labour Export Model. European Journal of East Asian Studies 8, 2: 275300.Google Scholar
Somerville, Will, Durana, Jamie, and Terrazas, Aaron Matteo. 2008. Hometown Associations: An Untapped Resource for Immigrant Integration? Washington, DC : Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Stanley, William Deane. 1996. The Protection Racket State: Elite Politics, Military Extortion, and Civil War in El Salvador. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Tinajero, Beatriz. 2008. Collective Remittances Flow and Impact: a Function of Social Capital? Mald thesis, Fletcher School, Tufts University.Google Scholar
Trans, Lars Ove. 2009. Mexican Hometown Associations in the U.S.: Motives for Transnational Engagement. Diálogos Latinoamericanos 16: 7089.Google Scholar
Villacres, Daniela. 2011. From Subjects to Citizens: Migrant Hometown Associations as Vehicles for Deepening Democracy. Ph.D. diss., Department of Sociology, Brown University.Google Scholar
Vonderlack-Navarro, Rebecca. 2007. Chicago Mexican Hometown Associations and the Confederation of Mexican Federations: Experiences of Binational Civic Participation. Background paper prepared for the conference “Latin American Migrants: Civic and Political Participation in a Transnational Context,” Chicago, October 26–27.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Roger, Popkin, Eric, and Magana, Hector Aquiles. 2008. Conflict and Contestation in the Cross-Border Community: Hometown Associations Reassessed. Ethnic and Racial Studies 31: 843–70.Google Scholar
Watkins, Callie. 2010. Beyond Remittances: Sustainable Diaspora Contributions and Development in Cape Verde, West Africa. Master's thesis, Department of Regional Planning, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2000. Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2005. Global Economic Prospects 2006: Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration. Washington, DC : World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2011. Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011. Washington, DC : World Bank.Google Scholar
Zabin, Carol, and Escala-Rabadán, Luis. 2002. From Civic Association to Political Participation: Mexican Hometown Associations and Mexican Immigrant Political Empowerment in Los Angeles. Frontera Norte 2: 741.Google Scholar
Zometa, José. 2010. Inicia carrera por 2.5 mlls. de votantes en el exterior. elsalvador.com, November 23. http://6hn.6v.sl.pt.Google Scholar