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治理侨汇激增

May 18, 2013 Kanayo F. Nwanze

罗马—十多年来，亚洲经济学一直在流动——其人民亦然。从农村到城市的移民和跨国境移民规模之大前所未有，而21世纪亚洲正是焦点。

在亚洲发展中国家中，侨汇（即移民工人寄给往往生活在贫困和边远地区的祖国家庭的汇款）的力量和潜力是巨大的。目前，亚太地区超过6000万赴外务工人员汇出的侨汇占流向发展中国家侨汇总量的一大半，2012年就汇出了2600亿美元。

中国、印度和菲律宾是最大三个侨汇流入国，孟加拉国、印尼、巴基斯坦和越南也位列前十。侨汇通常是救命钱：据估计10%的亚洲家庭依靠来自国外的汇款获得食物、衣服和住所。

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Horatio Morgan Jun 21, 2013

While I find this account on remittance flows to be very interesting, I am not convinced that the investment of these flows primarily in rural communities is in the best interest of the rural recipients, the senders abroad, or long-term economic growth in general. Rural residents are perhaps primarily disadvantaged by their limited mobility in an inherently risky and dynamic global economy. A long-term solution to the welfare problems of rural residents ought to address this.

This is my understanding of the economic reality: labor and capital will be reallocated from one industry (i.e. from agriculture to manufacturing) and/or location (i.e. from rural to urban) to another over time as a central part of the dynamic efficiencies that modern market-based economies engender in response to technological progress as well as economic development in general.

To the extent that urban areas are relatively capital- and knowledge/technology intensive, low- or semi-skilled rural residents may be better off moving to urban areas where they are likely to be more productive and earn higher wages. At the same time, I do recognize that there may be systematic impediments that make internal migration costly. These costs may emanate, for instance, from the need for skill upgrading, lack of access to affordable housing and health care services. Remittance flows along with public funds may be used to absorb these costs.

On another note, if the returns from private investments in new commercial ventures are relatively high in urban areas (given better “soft” and “hard” infrastructure and social and business networks), then it is unclear to me how rural residents will be made better off if they are encouraged to invest their saved remittances in less profitable rural-based commercial activities.

Finally, since individuals are not destined to live in rural areas, I recommend the following general prescription in relation to the use of remittance flows: rural individuals should be encouraged to invest in transferable skills, and concentrate on those economic activities from which they derive the most value from their limited resources. To be sure, this may result in a wave of migration from rural to urban areas. But internal migration should not be frowned upon; after all, the remittances are derived from the relatives of rural residents who became better off after going abroad.
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Ketharaman Swaminathan May 22, 2013

That's like $4333 per year or $361 per month.
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