Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Emigrant-Remittances and Domestic Adjustment in an Era of Globalization

这个项目处理汇款的政治原因和影响，汇款是指移民寄回发展中国家的家人的钱。该项目收集并使用墨西哥家庭随机样本的调查数据，并与墨西哥政策制定者进行访谈，以调查三个核心问题：(1)当被迫面对经济冲击时，无法可靠获得社会福利计划的家庭是否更有可能收到汇款？(2)在控制相关因素的情况下，收款人家庭对不稳定的市场政策的抵抗力是否低于非收款人家庭？(3)发展中国家政府促进移民和吸引汇款的努力是否作为一种事实上的社会政策，由政策制定者实施，目的是限制限制他们在社会福利项目上花费大量资金的能力所产生的政治后果？本研究通过在本文献中首次分析移民汇款所起的社会保险作用，为发展中国家市场改革和全球化的影响和可行性的政治科学辩论做出了贡献。此外，这一建议为人类学家、经济学家和社会学家之间关于发展中国家移民汇款功能的争论提供了一个新的宏观层面的视角。这个研究项目也有更广泛的社会影响。虽然移民是一种双边现象，只有移民输出国和移民接受国政府共同努力才能最有效地管理移民，但发达国家的政策制定者通常通过移民控制政策单方面处理移民问题。这项研究为两国的政策专家提供了一个关于移民如何为发展中国家的家庭和政治家服务的新视角。通过了解这些动态，可以增加双边对话的机会，并使更有效的双边解决方案成为可能。这种更广泛的社会影响是通过以下方式实现的：向墨西哥和美国的政策专家传播本研究的数据和发现；墨西哥和美国学者在进行实地研究的过程中建立了新的关系；将墨西哥研究人员、墨西哥政策制定者和墨西哥移民家庭的边缘化观点和见解整合到美国移民辩论中，通过该实地项目产生的出版物。

This project addresses the political causes and effects of remittances, the money emigrants send back to their family members in developing countries. The project collects and uses survey data from random samples of Mexican households and interviews conducted with Mexican policymakers to investigate three central questions: (1) When forced to confront an economic shock, are households without reliable access to social welfare programs more likely to receive remittances? (2) Are remittance-receiving households less resistant to destabilizing market-oriented policies than non-recipients, controlling for relevant factors? (3) Are the efforts of developing country governments to facilitate emigration and attract remittances pursued as a de facto social policy, implemented by policymakers with the aim of limiting political fallout from constraints on their ability to spend large amounts of money on social welfare programs? This study contributes to political science debates about the impact and feasibility of market reform and globalization in developing countries by, for the first time in this literature, analyzing the social insurance role played by migrant-remittances. Furthermore, this proposal provides a novel macro-level perspective to debates among anthropologists, economists, and sociologists about the functions of migrant-remittances in developing countries. This research project also has broader social impacts. Although migration is a bilateral phenomenon that is most effectively managed when migrant-sending and migrant-receiving governments work together, policymakers in the developed world have generally dealt with migration issues unilaterally via immigration control policies. This study provides policy experts on both sides of the border a new perspective about how emigration serves households and politicians in developing countries. By understanding these dynamics, opportunities for bilateral dialogues can be enhanced and more effective bilateral solutions become possible. This broader social impacts occur through: the dissemination of this study's data and findings to Mexican and US policy experts; the establishment of new relationships between Mexican and US scholars in the process of conducting field research; the integration of the marginalized perspectives and insights of Mexican researchers, Mexican policy-makers, and Mexican emigrant-households into the US immigration debate via publications that result from this field project.