Leveraging Remittances for Economic Development in Developing Countries

Abstract

Migrant remittances are seen with mixed views in terms of negative and positive impacts on developing countries. The purpose of this thesis is to critically analyze literature about such impacts and present policy recommendations for leveraging the positive impacts to spur economic development. This study recommends that policies and individual initiatives driven by an economic development framework will help improve the use of remittances. Adopting an economic development framework would reduce negative impacts of consumption, dependency, and devaluation of a country's economy. However, a shared responsibility is required to implement this framework. Governments of origin and destination countries, policy makers, migrants, recipients, and private financial service providers all play a role in leveraging remittances. Key words: remittances, developing countries, economic development framework