Remittances and the Moral Economies of Bangladeshi New York Immigrants in Light of the Economic Crisis
type: CreativeWork
description: Remittance flows to Bangladesh during the 2008 global financial crisis presented an exceptional case of resilience while most remittance recipient countries were experiencing a drastic decline, as was predicted by leading world economists (World Bank, Ratha 2009). The question I seek to resolve in this dissertation is: Why did remittance practices from Bangladeshi immigrants keep on flowing when the majority of remittance flows to many other developing countries declined following the 2008 economic recession? One reason is the strong presence of what I call a "moral economy of giving and sharing" that is guided by cultural or religious repertoires on family obligations, kinship, gender, hierarchy, and charity. Drawing on empirical narratives and biographies that combine open-ended interviews with 65 Bangladeshi male immigrants in New York (the majority being Muslim) as well as ethnographic interviews of 7 families in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I use the concept of moral economies to analyze the motivations behind remitting under variable conditions. My results suggest that Bangladeshi remitters invest in remittance practices because they allow the remitter to have control over his role as the main provider, while at the same time enhancing his self-worth. I model three mechanisms by which the Bangladeshi men I interviewed evaluate their self-worth: 1/ the practice of remitting enables Bangladeshi male migrants to maintain their role as the main provider, thereby guaranteeing hierarchical social roles; 2/ sending remittances serves as a strategy to maintain status and honor in both New York and Bangladesh; and 3/ not sending has social and affective consequences for both remitters and recipients. These results are consistent with transnational scholars who argue that remittances have a cultural dimension, allowing for the maintenance of family ties (Levitt 2001, Nyberg Sørensen 2005). They are novel in that they suggest that Bangladeshi immigrants' underlying motives are cul…
abstract: Remittance flows to Bangladesh during the 2008 global financial crisis presented an exceptional case of resilience while most remittance recipient countries were experiencing a drastic decline, as was predicted by leading world economists (World Bank, Ratha 2009). The question I seek to resolve in this dissertation is: Why did remittance practices from Bangladeshi immigrants keep on flowing when the majority of remittance flows to many other developing countries declined following the 2008 economic recession? One reason is the strong presence of what I call a "moral economy of giving and sharing" that is guided by cultural or religious repertoires on family obligations, kinship, gender, hierarchy, and charity. Drawing on empirical narratives and biographies that combine open-ended interviews with 65 Bangladeshi male immigrants in New York (the majority being Muslim) as well as ethnographic interviews of 7 families in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I use the concept of moral economies to analyze the motivations behind remitting under variable conditions. My results suggest that Bangladeshi remitters invest in remittance practices because they allow the remitter to have control over his role as the main provider, while at the same time enhancing his self-worth. I model three mechanisms by which the Bangladeshi men I interviewed evaluate their self-worth: 1/ the practice of remitting enables Bangladeshi male migrants to maintain their role as the main provider, thereby guaranteeing hierarchical social roles; 2/ sending remittances serves as a strategy to maintain status and honor in both New York and Bangladesh; and 3/ not sending has social and affective consequences for both remitters and recipients. These results are consistent with transnational scholars who argue that remittances have a cultural dimension, allowing for the maintenance of family ties (Levitt 2001, Nyberg Sørensen 2005). They are novel in that they suggest that Bangladeshi immigrants' underlying motives are cul…
author: Stevanovic-Fenn, Natacha
language: English
keywords: Sociology
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:44:22Z
provider: Columbia University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Columbia University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.7916/D8J67Q1V