Follow the money - Remittances as social practice

Remittances, i.e. the portion of someones earnings sent from ones migration destination to the place of origin, impress by sheer numbers: such private money transfers add up to twice the budget of official development assistance. It is therefore no surprise that remittance money has gained much attention from policy and development studies. This macro-economic research however tends to overlook a key factor of remittances: the people, who earn, save, send, receive and spend the money and therein earmark it with different meanings. Next to policy interpretations of humanitarian support and financial investment remittances can be seen as vectors of social relations or as powerful tools of controlling a network one has long left behind. In this anthropological perspective, remittances are a social practice and means of positioning the self in transnational environments. They are acts of participation, expressions of loyalty and of individual agency. With the following research questions, we can further substantiate this reading of economic transactions as social practice: What changes have occurred in the remittance practices since the first pioneer migrants have been recruited to Austria in the 1960s? Do remittances have an effect on the gender roles, for example, when men are absent and women in charge of finances? And what happens in the now imminent phase of retirement when pioneer migrants decide to return to their place of origin: what expectations, for example in care- chains, are connected to the money transmissions? To grasp the social side of economic transactions, the methodological focus shifts to the remittance actors themselves, their practices and their ways of earmarking remittance money with personal significance. In order to reconstruct the actors creation of meaning and logic, we need to literally follow the money into the transnational field and find out who sends to whom and why and how the money is eventually spent. The field of research encompasses two main locations: the town of Fulpmes and the province and city of Usak. Fulpmes is a small rural town in Stubai Valley in Tirol, Austria. Its population of approx. 4000 includes 500 of Turkish origin, most of whom hail from the region of Usak in northwestern Turkey. Forty years after the recruitment agreements between Turkey and Austria, both locations pursue an active exchange on economic, social and political levels with delegates from companies, schools and local politics visiting each other regularly. But much more has been transferred along money and politics: retirement arrangements, housing, education, health organization and consumption needs underlie processes of cultural transfer and social change. By following the money, we can deepen our understanding of the transnational structures of contemporary society for which migration is a key factor.

Remittances, i.e. the portion of money migrants send to their places of origin, are a crucial part of transnational migration and the global economy. In 2019, migrants sent 700 billion USD worldwide. Overall, these transfers amounts to three times the budget of development assistance. Who sends this money to whom? What ideas, hopes and requests are sent along with the money? And which transformative effects do these transfers have in the sending and receiving communities? This project investigates the role of remittances in the history of labour migration between Turkey and Austria from the 1960s until today and analyses the social changes in migrants' everyday lives and the politics of transnational identity. We understand remittances as social practices, that reinforce or control cross-border relations and constitute transnational society. Earmarked as expressions of nostalgia, as social glue or as powerful tools of controlling a network one has left behind, remittances can be read as acts of participation, manifestations of loyalty and as expressions of agency, influence and power. Mostly, migration studies concentrate on urban centres; little is known about the conditions and effects of migration in small towns or villages. Therefore, our research expands from the market town Fulpmes in Tyrol to the rural areas in the region of Uak in Turkey. Approximately one fifth of the population in Fulpmes have family ties in Uak, initiated by chain migration in the late 1960s. Our findings describe the ways migrants have participated transnationally in everyday life, built houses and enterprises, formed interior design, exchanged food, and invested in real estate in both Austria and Turkey. Most of this development is located in the city of Uak, whereas the villages and rural space are characterized by abandoned houses of the migrants, closed schools and shops. Only recently, migrants have started to invest in village infrastructure. Our findings describe a transformation of sending patterns and usage of money. The pioneer migrants' remittances in the 1960s were used to repay the migration costs and contribute to the household expenses for parents, spouses and children. Since the 1980s, remittances were used more for individual consumption purposes and investment in real estate and companies. Within the last ten years, collective forms of remitting gained momentum, organized for example by a newly founded association for the revitalization of the hometown village. This transformation in sending practices allocates the social upward mobility within the migrant community in Austria. Moreover, through their community-based investments the migrants prepared their return. The majority of our first generation research partners are retired now, commuting between the two regions. We can thus show that analysing remittances and their purposes sheds light on the history, present and future of transnational society.