Nation-Building Legacies, Public Service Policies, and Immigrant Remittances: A Mixed-Methods Study of Central American-U.S. Migration

Every year, immigrants around the world remit over half a trillion dollars back to low-and middle-income countries. This outpaces money sent in development assistance and, in recent years, foreign direct investment as well. Yet, little is known about how access to public services in the U.S. affect remittances. Political scientist Cyril Bennouna will examine how social policy expanding or restricting immigrants’ access to social services influences remittances. He will conduct interviews, engage in participant observation, and analyze a novel dataset that combines remittance data from across the U.S. and state social policies for his study.