Remittances and Rural Underdevelopment in the English-Speaking Caribbean

As a concomitant of migration in many underdeveloped countries, remittances are said to have such positive effects as reducing balance of payments deficits, accelerating capital formation, financing technical improvements in peasant farming, and increasing rural incomes. This paper examines whether any of these benefits are felt in the rural portions of the English-speaking Caribbean through a survey of (1) the determinants of remittances; (2) the amount of funds repatriated; (3) the disbursement of the cash inputs; and (4) the developmental effects of the monies received. It is found that despite the large sums remitted and their importance for individual well-being and social mobility, there is no positive contribution to rural economic rejuvenation. This outcome is examined by referring to the historical-structural context within which migration to and from the region developed. The conclusion is that remittances and the larger labor export phenomena of which they are a part must be viewed as a product of overarching political and economic forces if their local-level implications for rural West Indian economic growth are to be appreciated. In developmental terms, the real beneficiaries of migration lie outside the West Indies in the industrial-capitalist societies of the already developed world.