Making migrant-government partnerships work: Insights from the logic of collective action

Political Science Quarterly

Volumn 127, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 417-443

  Flores Macías, Gustavo A ^a  

^a Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84867265656     PISSN: 00323195     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/j.1538-165X.2012.tb00733.x     Document Type: Article

References (147)

1. World Bank, Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011), vii.
2. Dilip Ratha, "Remittances: A Lifeline for Development, " Finance and Development 42 (December 2005): 1.
3. Dilip Ratha et al., Migration and Development Brief 8 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008), 12.
4. Manuel Orozco, Lindsay Lowell, Micah Bump, and Rachel Fedewa, Transnational Engagement, Remittances, and Development (report for the Rockefeller Foundation, Georgetown University, 2005).
5. Those that must be available to everyone if they are available to anyone.
6. Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), 14.
7. The Mexican partnership is characterized here as "relatively successful, " since, in spite of its many problems (such as the dependence on the volatility of remittance flows), it has remained in existence for over a decade. This outcome contrasts with that of the short-lived Salvadorian experience and others that have failed to materialize.
8. The partnership has encouraged the formation of many hometown associations (HTAs) across the United States. Author's interviews with Efraín Jiménez, Vice President of the Federation of Zacatecan Clubs in Southern California (FCZSC), August 2007 and April 2008, and Rubén Chávez, President of the Federation of Clubs from Michoacán in Illinois, September 2008. Although many HTAs and their philanthropic efforts would still exist in the absence of the partnership, their scale and impact would be of a completely different order of magnitude.
9. Rafael Alarcón, "The Development of the Hometown Associations in the United States and the Use of Social Remittances in Mexico" in Rodolfo de la Garza and Lindsay Lowell, eds., Sending Money Home (New York: Rowman, 2002)
10. Rodolfo García Zamora, "The Impact of Remittances in Jerez, Zacatecas, " in Barbara Merz, ed., New Patterns for Mexico (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 19.
11. Manuel Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations and Development Opportunities, " Journal of International Affairs 57 (Spring 2004), 31.
12. Luis Escala-Rabadán, "Migración y formas organizativas en los Estados Unidos: los clubes de migrantes mexicanos en California" in Guillaume Lanly and Basilia Valenzuela, eds., Clubes de Migrantes Oriundos Mexicanos en los Estados Unidos (Mexico: Universidad de Guadalajara, 2004), 425.
13. Barbara Merz, New Patterns for Mexico (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005)
14. Barbara J. Merz, Lincoln C. Chen, and Peter F. Geithner, eds., Diasporas and Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007)
15. Peggy Levitt, "Migrant Philanthropy in Latin America, " Harvard Review of Latin America (Spring 2002)
16. Peggy Levitt, The Transnational Villagers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).
17. Luin Goldring, "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico: A Multi-dimensional Typology, " Development and Change 35 (September 2004): 799-840
18. Levitt, The Transnational Villagers
19. Cecilia Menjivar, Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)
20. Alejandro Portes and Patricia Landolt, "Social Capital: Promises and Pitfalls of its Role in Development, " Journal of Latin American Studies 32 (May 2000): 529-547.
21. Alina Rocha, Programa 3x1 para migrantes, Report for Europe Aid Cooperation Office (2006), 6.
22. Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations"
23. Raúl Delgado and Héctor Rodríguez, "The Emergence of Collective Migrants and Their Role in Mexico's Local and Regional Development, " Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 22 (2001): 747-764
24. Xóchitl Bada, "Reconstrucción de identidades regionales a través de proyectos de remesas colectivas, " in Lanly and Valenzuela, eds., Clubes de migrantes oriundos mexicanos en los Estados Unidos.
25. Luin Goldring, "Desarrollo, migradólares y la participación ciudadana de los norteños en Zacatecas, " in Miguel Moctezuma and Héctor Rodríguez, eds., Impacto de la Migración y las Remesas en el Crecimiento Económico Regional (Mexico: Senado de la República, 1999)
26. Goldring, "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico, " 799.
27. Katrina Burgess, "Migrant Philanthropy and Local Governance, " in Merz, ed., New Patterns for Mexico
28. Katrina Burgess, "State Society Relations across Borders:Migrant Transnationalism in Mexico and El Salvador, " (paper presented at the III Coloquio sobre Migración y Desarrollo, Costa Rica, 4-6 December 2008).
29. Jonathan Fox and Xochitl Bada, "Migrant Organization and Hometown Impacts in Rural Mexico, " Journal of Agrarian Change 8 (April and July 2008): 435-461.
30. Francisco Aparicio and Covadonga Meseguer, "Collective Remittances and the State: The 3x1 Program for Migrants in Mexico, " (paper presented at the 2008 APSA Meeting in Boston, 28 August 2008).
31. Sarah Gammage, "Exporting People and Recruiting Remittances: A Development Strategy for El Salvador?" Latin American Perspectives 33 (November 2006): 75-100.
32. Lindsay Lowell and Rodolfo de la Garza, The Development Role of Remittances in US Latino Communities and in Latin American Countries. Report for the Tomás Rivera Institute (2002).
33. Sharon Russell, "Remittances from International Migration: A Review in Perspective, " World Development 14 (June 1986): 677-696.
34. Rinus Penninx, "A Critical Review of Theory and Practice: The Case of Turkey, " International Migration Review 16 (Winter 1982): 781-818.
35. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, 34.
36. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, 34.
37. Todd Sandler, Collective Action: Theory and Applications (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992)
38. Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990)
39. David Knoke, Organizing for Collective Action (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990).
40. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action
41. Sandler, Collective Action: Theory and Applications
42. Todd Sandler, Global Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
43. Free riders are those "who contribute less than their true marginal value derived from a nonexcludable public good. " Sandler, Collective Action: Theory and Applications, 17.
44. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action
45. T.K. Ahn et al., "Heterogeneous Preferences and Collective Action, " Public Choice 117 (December 2003): 295-314.
46. Paul Samuelson, "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure, " Review of Economics and Statistics 36 (November 1954), 387-389.
47. Goldring, "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico, " 824.
48. Goldring, "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico, " 824.
49. World Bank, Economic Implications of Remittances (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006).
50. World Bank, Economic Implications of Remittances (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006).
51. Orozco, Lowell, Bump, and Fedewa, Transnational Engagement, Remittances, and Development.
52. The leaders of migrant associations may not necessarily fall into this category. The incentives compelling the leadership to organize migrants are discussed later in the text.
53. Peter Gammeltoft, "Remittances and Other Financial Flows to Developing Countries, " International Migration 40 (February 2002): 181-211.
54. Eleanor Brown, "Patterns and Purposes of Philanthropic Giving" in Charles Clotfelter and Thomas Ehrlich, eds., Philanthropy and the Non-profit Sector (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 212.
55. Most migrant associations contribute under $10,000 annually. Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations, " 31.
56. These preferences have been documented elsewhere (see Luin Goldring, "The Mexican State and Transnational Organizations, " Latin American Research Review 37 (Summer 2002): 55-99
57. Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations") and confirmed through interviews with Efraín Jiménez, Vice President of the FCZSC, August 2007 and April 2008
58. Malú Guerra, Deputy Director-General for Social Programs, Mexico's Ministry of Social Development, April 2007
59. Ernesto Nosthas, one of the architects of the Salvadorian partnership Unidos por Solidaridad and Director-General for Migrant Affairs, El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 2009.
60. Alarcón, "The Development of the Hometown Associations, " 101.
61. Goldring, "The Mexican State and Transnational Organizations, " 83.
62. Burgess, "State Society Relations across Borders"
63. Aparicio and Meseguer, "Collective Remittances and the State. "
64. International Organization for Migration, "Engaging Diasporas as Development Partners for Home and Destination Countries" (IOM Migration Research Series No. 26, Switzerland, 2006).
65. Western Union has participated in several government-migrant partnerships. Author's interview with Mario Hernández, Director of Public Affairs, Western Union, November 2008.
66. For a discussion of the importance of trust on collective action, see Elinor Ostrom and T.K. Ahn, "A Social Science Perspective on Social Capital: Social Capital and Collective Action, " (report for Enquete Commission of the German Federal Government, 2001).
67. Alarcón, "The Development of the Hometown Associations"
68. Miguel Moctezuma, "La organización de los migrantes zacatecanos en Estados Unidos, " Cuadernos Agrarios 19-20 (Jan-June 2000): 81-104.
69. Goldring, "Family and Collective Remittances to Mexico"
70. Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations, " 31.
71. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, 133.
72. Sandler, Collective Action: Theory and Applications
73. Dennis Chong, Collective Action and Civil Rights Movements (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991)
74. Russell Hardin, Collective Action (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982).
75. Norman Frohlick, Joe Oppenheimer, and Oran Young, Political Leadership and Collective Goods (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971).
76. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action
77. Elinor Ostrom, "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms, " Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Summer 2000): 137-158
78. Sandler, Collective Action: Theory and Applications, 60.
79. Ostrom, "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms, " 150.
80. The objective was to direct monetary remittances toward domestic banks, which could, in turn, lend to local investors. Lilian Autler, "Una potencial alianza para el desarrollo: remesas y movimiento cooperativo en El Salvador, " in Mario Lungo, ed., Migración Internacional y Desarrollo (El Salvador: FUNDES, 1997), 107.
81. The objective was to direct monetary remittances toward domestic banks, which could, in turn, lend to local investors. Lilian Autler, "Una potencial alianza para el desarrollo: remesas y movimiento cooperativo en El Salvador, " in Mario Lungo, ed., Migración Internacional y Desarrollo (El Salvador: FUNDES, 1997), 107.
82. Shivani Puri and Tineke Ritzema, "Migrant Worker Remittances, Micro-finance and the Informal Economy" (ILO social finance unit working paper 21, July 1999).
83. Dina Ionescu, Engaging Diasporas as Development Partners for Home and Destination Countries (Geneva, International Organization for Migration, 2007), 57.
84. Germán Palafox, Program 3x1 for Migrants (presented by the Undersecretary for Social Programs, Mexico's Ministry of Social Development, at the Ad-hoc Expert Meeting: Contribution of Migrants to Development, Switzerland, 29 July 2009).
85. Author's interview with Malú Guerra, Deputy Director-General for Social Programs, Mexico's Ministry of Social Development, April 2007.
86. Secretaría de Desarrollo Social, Programa 3 x 1 Unidad de Microrregiones (México, DF: SEDESOL, 2005).
87. Palafox, Program 3x1 for Migrants.
88. Such is the scope of development projects financed by migrants from the Senegal River Valley-Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal-living in France and organized in Organisations de Solidarité International Issues de Migrations (OSIM) but without partnering with their governments. OECD, Migration, Remittances, and Development, (Paris: OECD, 2005).
89. Orozco finds that more than half of the total projects in Mexico are funded in communities with less than 1,000 inhabitants and in which the public works budget is extremely limited. Orozco, "Mexican Hometown Associations, " 37.
90. Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática, Finanzas Públicas Estatales y Municipales de Mexico, 2002-2005 (Mexico: INEGI, 2007).
91. Salvador Sanabria and Pedro Mojica, Community Remittances and Local Development (paper for IADB-MIF conference on Remittances as a Development Tool, Guatemala, 3 September 2003).
92. Author's interview with Efraín Jiménez, Vice President, Federation of Zacatecan Migrants in Southern California (FCZSC), April 2008.
93. Author's interview with Efraín Jiménez, Vice President of the FCZSC, August 2007.
94. Goldring, "The Mexican State and Transnational Organizations, " 74.
95. Goldring, "The Mexican State and Transnational Organizations, " 74.
96. Michael Jones-Correa, "Different Paths: Gender, Immigration, and Political Participation, " International Migration Review 32 (Summer 1998): 326-349
97. Luis Guarnizo, "The Economics of Transnational Living, " International Migration Review, 37 (Fall 2003): 666-699.
98. David Fitzgerald, Negotiating Extra-Territorial Citizenship. CCIS Monograph #2, UCSD (2000).
99. Matt Bakker and Michael Smith, "El Rey del Tomate: Migrant Political Transnationalism and Democratization in Mexico, " Migraciones Internacionales 2 (Jan.-June 2003): 59-83.
100. As will be discussed later, this allows migrant associations to directly oversee and manage their funds. Katrina Burgess, "Migrant Philanthropy and Local Governance, " in Merz, ed., New Patterns for Mexico
101. Manuel Orozco and Kate Welle, "Hometown Associations and Development, " in Merz ed., New Patterns for Mexico, 157.
102. A brief attempt by the government to open participation was reversed due to generalized discontent among migrants. Author's interview with Guillermo Huerta, Director of Social Programs, Ministry of Social Development, October 2008.
103. In addition to enhancing ownership, it must also be noted that migrant participation in the COVAM sometimes leads to jealousy and frictions within the migrant community.
104. Author's interview with Rubén Chávez, President of the Federation of Clubs from Michoacán in Illinois, September 2008.
105. Sometimes migrants' friends and family are selected to participate in the oversight committees.
106. Author's interview with Efraín Jiménez, Vice President of the FCZSC, April 2008.
107. The program has been criticized for neglecting long-term maintenance costs of infrastructure projects and for its inability to contribute toward the development of the least-affluent municipalities in Mexico that do not have an international migrant tradition. Raúl Delgado and Héctor Rodríguez, "The Emergence of Collective Migrants and Their Role in Mexico's Local and Regional Development, " Canadian Journal of Development Studies 22 (Fall 2001): 747-764
108. CIDE, Evaluación externa de consistencia y resultados 2007 del Programa 3 x 1 para Migrantes (México: CIDE, 2008).
109. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of participating associations increased nine-fold, the number of participating states rose from 18 to 27, and the amount invested in projects grew by a factor of five. Palafox, Program 3x1 for Migrants.
110. Gammage, "Exporting People and Recruiting Remittances, " 75.
111. The central government, 12 departments, and more than 200 municipalities.
112. Ernesto Nosthas, "El caso de El Salvador: Unidos por Solidaridad" in Fernández de Castro et al., eds., El Programa 3x1 para Migrantes (Mexico: Porrúa, 2006), 45.
113. "Diáspora, socios en diversas obras, " El Diaro de Hoy, 6 October 2006.
114. "Concurso de Fondos del FISDL, " El Diaro de Hoy, 19 February 2004.
115. Gammage, "Exporting People and Recruiting Remittances, " 91.
116. Alison Paul and Sarah Gammage, Hometown Associations and Development: El Salvador (Destination D.C. Working Paper 3, 2004).
117. Paul and Gammage, Hometown Associations and Development: El Salvador.
118. Patricia Landolt et al., "The Dialectics of Salvadoran Transnationalism, " Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (March 1999): 290-315.
119. This view was consistently expressed in interviews with leaders of Salvadorian associations in California, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Author's interviews with Miriam Karaoglani, René Velasco, Donaldo Sosa, and Ricardo Álvarez (2009, 2010).
120. Paul and Gammage, Hometown Associations and Development: El Salvador, 18.
121. Paul and Gammage, Hometown Associations and Development: El Salvador, 18.
122. Ernesto Nosthas, "El caso de El Salvador: Unidos por Solidaridad, " in Fernández de Castro et al., eds., El Programa 3x1 para Migrantes, 45.
123. Ernesto Nosthas, "El caso de El Salvador: Unidos por Solidaridad, " in Fernández de Castro et al., eds., El Programa 3x1 para Migrantes, 45.
124. Author's interview with Ernesto Nosthas, one of the architects of the Salvadorian partnership Unidos por Solidaridad and Director-General for Migrant Affairs, El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 2009.
125. Burgess, State Society Relations Across Borders.
126. Paul and Gammage, Hometown Associations and Development: El Salvador, 18.
127. Aparicio and Meseguer, "Collective Remittances and the State. "
128. About 15 percent of the program's projects in Mexico have historically fallen into this category. Author's interview with Guillermo Huerta, Director of Social Programs, Ministry of Social Development, October 2008.
129. James Coleman, "Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital, " American Journal of Sociology 94 (supplement 1998): S95-S120.
130. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000).
131. Douglas Massey and María Aysa-Lastra, "Social Capital and International Migration from Latin America, " International Journal of Population Research (2011).
132. Alejandro Portes, "Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications to Modern Sociology, " Annual Review of Sociology 24 (August 1998): 1-24
133. Putnam, Bowling Alone
134. José Miguel Cruz, "Social Capital in the Americas: Community-Problem Solving Participation, " Americas Barometers Insights (Latin American Public Opinion Project, Vanderbilt University, 2008)
135. Joseph Klesner, "Social Capital and Political Participation in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, " Latin American Research Review 42 (Summer 2007): 1-32
136. John Booth and Patricia Richards, "Civil Society, Political Capital, and Democratization in Central America, " Journal of Politics 60 (August 1998): 780-800.
137. Latinobarómetro, 1996, 2003, Banco de Datos de Latinobarómetro (Santiago, Chile).
138. Latinobarómetro, 1996, 2003, Banco de Datos de Latinobarómetro (Santiago, Chile).
139. Cruz, "Social Capital in the Americas: Community-Problem Solving Participation, " 1-4.
140. Elisabeth Wood, Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), chap. 6.
141. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action.
142. Hardin, Collective Action
143. Knoke, Organizing for Collective Action
144. Chong, Collective Action and Civil Rights Movements
145. Ostrom, "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms. "
146. On Colombia and Ecuador's plans, see Rodolfo García Zamora, "El Programa 3x1 de remesas colectivas en Mexico, " Migraciones Internacionales 4 (Jan.-June 2007): 165-172.
147. Barbara Merz, "Remesas y equidad" in Fernández de Castro et al., eds., El Programa 3x1 para Migrantes, 82.