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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]

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]