Working Papers

This working paper series is the result of UN-INSTRAW’s research in migration, gender and development and the organization’s recently launched work in a new strategic area: global care chains.1 UN-INSTRAW is convinced that the formation of global care chains embodies the broader process of the globalization of care and provides a valuable position from which to examine the interrelationship between migration and development. This paper accompanies “Global perspectives on the social organization of care in times of crisis: Assesing the policy challenges ahead”.

 

The study of global care chains looks most often at Asian migration (or interregional migrationas in the case of the US) and rarely at migration from Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the focus of these papers. The first paper asks ‘what is happening’ while the second considers ‘how to intervene in what is happening’. Our intention to launch these papers in a public debate is three-fold: 1) to show the importance of including caregiving in the discussion of development; 2) to argue that we cannot talk about caregiving without considering globalization and migration; and 3) to raise new elements of reflection for those already working in the area of social organization of care, such as development issue from a transnational perspective.

 

To download the french version, please click here

Working Paper 5 : Global perspectives on the social organization of care in times of crisis I : Assessing the situation, Amaia Pérez Orozco, 2009

This working paper series is the result of UN-INSTRAW’s research in migration, gender and development and the organization’s recently launched work in a new strategic area: global care chains.1 UN-INSTRAW is convinced that the formation of global care chains embodies the broader process of the globalization of care and provides a valuable position from which to examine the interrelationship between migration and development. This paper accompanies “Global perspectives on the social organization of care in times of crisis: Assesing the policy challenges ahead”

 

The study of global care chains looks most often at Asian migration (or interregional migration as in the case of the US) and rarely at migration from Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the focus of these papers. The first paper asks ‘what is happening’ while the second considers ‘how to intervene in what is happening’. Our intention to launch these papers in a  public debate is three-fold: 1) to show the importance of including caregiving in the discussion of development; 2) to argue that we cannot talk about caregiving without considering globalization and migration; and 3) to raise new elements of reflection for those already working in the area of social organization of care, such as development issue from a transnational perspective.

 

To download the Spanish version, please click here

 

To download the french version, please click here.

Remittances are the most visible factor that link migration and development. Despite the increasingly optimistic visions, the paper argues that the empirical evidence of the positive effects of the flow of remittances on development is weak, and that the use of different methodological and conceptual frameworks can yield mixed results. It discusses the impact of remittances at the local level, with special attention to the proposal of channeling remittances through formal financial institutions. Finally, some reflections are made on the additional elements of discussion that arise when introducing the issue of gender in the debate, the differential role of women and men in sending and receiving remittances and their impact on gender relations.

This document makes a critical analysis of the dominant discourse on the link between migration and development, which gives a highly positive view of the impact of migration on the development of countries of origin (and, above all, local development of communities of origin), achieved mainly thanks to the flow of remittances. It discusses worrying questions of that discourse (biased concepts underlying the lack of a transnational perspective and neglected gender impacts, etc.), and provides some tentative points to refocus the discussion.

This paper discusses the process of the so-called global care chains and the phenomena behind them. It deals with the conformation of transnational dimension chains with the objective of sustaining daily life, and in which household work is transferred from one to another based on an axis of power. The paper examines their impact on development at the global level, analyzing the impact on origin, destination and transnational families and beyond to the whole social development of the countries involved. This raises the urgency of a public debate on the social organization of care as part of the global development agenda.