ARI Working Paper Series

Research on the migration-development nexus has experienced an excessive domination by economic explanations during the last several decades. Econometric analysis has been such a dominant factor in the debate that the very language of analysis tends to marginalize social developmental outcomes of migration. There is also a clear lack of longitudinal research. The paper attempts to push migration-development debates beyond the realm of economic development by a close consideration of family dynamics. Drawing on longitudinal data, this research documents the relationships between migration and development by showing how migration and resultant remittances create a condition that promotes human capital development, quality of life, social positioning, gender and intergenerational relations, and last but not least, female empowerment. The fieldwork was conducted in a Singapore temporary labor migration-source village in Bangladesh in 2001 and 2006. The study reports that migration has contributed to the improved human capital, social mobility, gender and intergenerational relations in the study village. This research suggests that male labor migration has induced migrant wives left-behind to gain a variety of skills that will in turn stimulate changes in the Bangladeshi society in the long run.