Refugee Remittances: Conceptual Issues and the Cuban and Nicaraguan Experiences

Abstract

This article assesses the notion that the determinants of remittances generated by refugee flows, particularly from Communist-inspired systems, are different from those associated with labor migrations. Labor migration, by definition, involves the voluntary departure from the home country in search of better economic options, whereas refugees, including those from communist systems, depart their homelands for a combination of political and economic reasons. These differences have a major bearing on how labor migrants and refugees perceive their relationship with countries of origin. The propensity of labor migrants to dissociate themselves from the home country is considerably less than among refugees whose perceptions are mediated by opposition to the ruling regime and other factors, such as political relations between refugee-sending and refugee-receiving countries and whether or not there has been a regime change or one is expected to occur. The conceptual issues elaborated here are based on the Cuban-American experience, but also reflect an assessment of Nicaraguan emigration during the 1980s.