Social Remittances upon Closer Examination: Moldovan Migrants in Prague, Czechia and Turin, Italy

ABSTRACT

Our goal is twofold: to contribute to conceptualizing social remittances and to shed new light on who the most important agents of change are. Using data from our own questionnaire surveys, carried out with Moldovan migrants in Prague, Czechia (N = 203) and Turin, Italy (N = 206) in 2017–2018, we applied classification and regression trees analysis. In addition to defining three types of social remittances—interpersonal communication–based, project-oriented, and return-tied remittances—we found that geographical context and migrants’ characteristics—namely, educational level, language abilities, socio-legality of residence, and satisfaction with life—variously influence the transfer of social remittances.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Pietro Cingolani and Francesco Vietti and their collaborators from FIERI (Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di Ricerche Sull’Immigrazione) for carrying out the survey in Turin. Moreover, thanks go to other members of GEOMIGRACE (Geographic Migration Centre), namely ZdeněkČermák, Eva Janská, DitaČermáková, LenkaPavelková, Milan Lupták, and MarkétaSeidlová for assisting in collecting the data in Prague.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Purposely, when commenting on the results, we do not go into more details in order not to split the whole picture (you can get more data/information on request).

2. We ascertained frequencies as to how different topics were discussed and with whom, but we were not able to follow the precise content of the communication between migrants and conversation recipients (see more in Drbohlav and Dzúrová (forthcoming).

3. All persons—interviewers—who assisted in collecting data within the surveys (both in Czechia and Italy) received special instructions on how to proceed.

4. Besides ethnic Moldovans with Moldovan citizenship, there was also a numerous group (both in Czechia and Italy) of ethnic Moldovans born in Moldova but now holding Romanian citizenship/passports.

5. When respecting a more complex view through the use of composite variables for FR and SR (“family remitting versus civic remitting”), for example, the clear relationship between FR and SR is questioned; see Bailey, Drbohlav, and Dzúrová (forthcoming).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation project “Moldovans in Prague (Czechia) and Torino (Italy): Migratory and Integration Patterns, Financial and Social Remittances under Scrutiny” (number P404/16-22194S).