Ecuadorian Remittances, Gender, and Family Relations: A study of the transnational ties between Ecuadorian migrants in England and their families in Ecuador
This thesis explores the meaning, management (including usage and transformation), and implication of international economic remittances for transnational gender and family relations for an under-researched diaspora - Ecuadorian migrants in England, and their families (non-migrants and return migrants) in Ecuador. Remittances have been explored primarily within the context of different: (a) forms of family relations, and (b) types of economic remittances. This approach has not been commonly undertaken in the exploration of remittances since these tend to be treated as economic transactions, rather than as transnational relational processes. Methodologically, this study embraces an interpretivist epistemology, a qualitative approach, and thematic analysis centred around 35 semi-structured interviews with migrant men and women in London and Oxford, and their recipient families in 6 different Ecuadorian provinces. This study offers empirical and conceptual contributions. Evidence from participants suggest five main findings: (1) Economic remittances are more than money. These are complex transnational social and emotional practices with multiple connotations, which help transnational families sustain interconnected symbolic processes of mutual visibility, recognition, and reciprocity. Yet, different type of economic remittances can have specific gendered meanings, purposes, and expectations for various family relationships. (2) Remittances created new forms of long-term intra- and inter-gender and generational remittance management relations (RMR) with one/multiple close family members, where women (non-migrant and return migrants) were preferred as remittance managers. Within these RMR, remittances were transformed into different forms of capital, at times secretly to avoid family conflict. While RMR helped these transnational families maintain, invest in, and/or strengthen their family relations, RMR were not always unproblematic. In some occasions, RMR altered remittance practices and relationships. (3) The personal pre-migration experience of domestic violence and/or family context of many participants led several men and women to remit in an act of solidarity towards many of their female recipients in Ecuador in an effort to help them prevent being in a situation of gender vulnerability. (4) Unlike several remittance studies, this research suggests that depending on the type of remittance relation, and the way remittances are used and managed, remittances do not always contribute to maintaining or reinforcing gender inequality within transnational families, particularly in conjugal relations. Wives’ dependence on their husbands may only be temporary and/or illusionary, and husbands’ dependence on their wives may become just as important, if not stronger than their wives’ reliance on them. (5) The primarily positive gender relations change, occurred for women participants (remitters and recipients) as they undertook new roles, directly received, managed, and controlled different forms of remittances, transformed remittances into various forms of capital, and gained various forms of power (including empowerment), decision making capabilities, autonomy, and a deeper level of involvement in their households/relations, and in some instances, even within their communities in Ecuador. At the conceptual level, based on the findings, the conceptual lacunas in the literature, and the need for a more integrative approach, a new Remittance Gender and Family Relations Framework (RGFRF) has been proposed, offering a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional analysis of remittances. The RGFRF is composed of four gender dimensions (power, production, emotional, and symbolic relations) to be explored within the context of various family relationships who exchange multiple types of remittances between and among men and women. Thus, the RGFRF offers a conceptual vocabulary/perceptual filters (as opposed to a predictive model) through which the various interrelated gender dimensions and complexities of different family remittances relationships may surface.
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