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Although the debate on the migration–remittances–development nexus in Latin America has advanced considerably in recent years, the literature has yet to analyse the socio-political implications of the process of Financialisation of Remittances (FOR) in the region. This paper sheds light on the relationship between the FOR and diaspora engagement policies in Colombia, thus contributing to a growing body of critical analyses on diasporas as agents of development and processes of financialisation beyond the global north. Since the turn of this century, Colombian governments have invested in consolidating part of the state apparatus to capture and maintain the diaspora and their resources connected to the motherland. The paper uses a case study approach centred on a systematic examination of the political–institutional apparatus developed to engage the diaspora and financialise remittances in Colombia over the past 20 years, incorporating a temporal and historical perspective of the triad migration–development–financialisation trends at the national level. It argues that the FOR is a centrepiece of the state's broader strategy for the symbolic and material redefinition of (transnational) membership, in which both, embracing – by extending social and political rights – and tapping – into migrant households' connections to global circuits of capital and finance – elements co-exist This case is illustrative of how a growing number of states are adopting models of diaspora engagement that, on the one hand, feed into the dominant financialised model of development; and on the other, serve as an instrumental strategy in the emerging architecture of the global governance of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fleeing from the country's humanitarian crisis, around 224,000 Venezuelans, half of whom requested protection as refugees, had crossed the border into Brazil as of December 2019. The paper uses a case study approach combining quantitative and documentary evidence to systematically examine the Brazilian political‐institutional response to this mass displacement. Although Brazil has been internationally praised as a model, its policy response has been far more complex and ambiguous, lacking the clear progressive character ascribed to it. Despite having a 'progressive' migration and refugee legal framework, the state's framing of this displacement as a temporary 'migration crisis' has led to the militarization of migration management and the adoption of ad hoc regularization mechanisms for the temporary settlement of Venezuelans, with little articulation with other long‐term intersectorial socio‐economic policies. This case illustrates how countries in the global south manage the tensions between securitization and human rights concerns in their migration governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been discussed in the international literature about the relationship between family arrangements and migration decision-making, although few studies have done so through the analysis of quantitative data from migrants' countries of origin. Based on the theoretical contributions brought by the New Economics of Labor Migration and Transnationalism, we investigate how three intervening factors affect household living arrangements in the migrant's country of origin: people's life-cycle stages, migration regimes, and family normative systems. Using as case study the municipality of Governador Valadares, Brazil, the country's main international emigration hotspot, we draw on a mixed-methods approach that includes the analysis of the Brazilian Census and novel survey data, in addition to 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with migrants' relatives and returnees. The results point to clear differences between the structure of households with and without international emigrants. The reasons for these differences may be two-fold: (a) international emigration is an important factor leading to the rearrangement of family care systems, and (b) migration decision-making processes are dependent upon particular household structures, family norms and migration regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Colombian government has embraced the migration‐development agenda by designing programmes to channel remittances to key sectors such as housing and finance,in an attempt to institutionalise migrant households' transnational economic practices. However, little is known about migrant households' multifaceted transnational practices, their broader impact on households' and localities' socioeconomic development and migrants' engagement with these migration‐for‐development programmes. Drawing on qualitative data collected along the Colombia‐UK migration network, this paper contrasts the narrow interpretation of development that underpins the migration‐development agenda, as exemplified by the remittances‐for‐housing programmes implemented in Colombia, with the more nuanced social and economic contributions that remittance‐financed housing investments have for migrant households' and communities' socioeconomic development. Thus, it provides a more nuanced interpretation of development to account for the often invisible, socioeconomic spinoffs that occur in the process of migrant households' attempts to produce and reproduce their livelihoods transnationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, various Latin American governments have sought to render migrants as development agents by channelling remittances to specific sectors such as housing and finance. The available literature has yet to articulate how these developments are reconfiguring the political economy of housing in the region. The paper draws on empirical data collected at both ends of the Colombia--UK migration network. It argues that the Colombian Government's efforts to incorporate migrants into the polity through a renovated housing policy aim to institutionalize migrant households' transnational practices and their links with global circuits of capital and finance. They are underpinned by the repositioning of housing away from consumption into an investment item and driver of economic growth and the financial sector as the main medium for households' access to public and private housing, and other basic services. These developments have taken place in the context of a broader process of financialization of the global development agenda in the last three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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