The long-term development impacts of international migration remittances for sending households: evidence from Morocco

Abstract

We integrate qualitative and quantitative methods to document the long-term impact of international migration remittances on household investment strategies, wealth outcomes, and equity of asset ownership among households in a Moroccan oasis valley. In the early 1960s, nearly 80,000 Moroccan men from the south-eastern oases left their families to work in French coal mines. Anthropological fieldwork shows that this migration event initiated decades-long streams of steady income in the forms of remittances and pension checks. Accompanying household-level empirical analysis shows that this afforded the migrant-sending households a foothold in the ‘new’ economy: Households invested in vocational training, secondary schooling, and business ownership at rates higher than their non-sending counterparts. Migration also hastened the transition of households out of the ‘old economy’ – land and livestock ownership declined for migrant-sending households, particularly those owning more land. We also document that the migration event was unusually open – work in the coal mines was open to virtually anyone – meaning that the recruits came from across the entire class- and economic spectrum. The combination of an unusually low entry cost and the resultant provision of a large and long flow of cash meant that overall, migration was an equalizing force in the economy.