Placing a Price Tag on (Imp)Mobility: Views from Those Left Behind

Globetrotting professionals or transnational elites have long been touted as the star drivers of today's global economy. Attracting lesser attention, although of no smaller significance, are the lowly-waged and unskilled labour migrants at the tail end of the spectrum.

These migrant workers, labourers and domestic workers, originate from rural regions and/or developing countries, and cross the increasingly porous borders in their quest to improve livelihood circumstances of their families who are mostly left behind in the home country.

While much has already been written about these migrants' experiences and the formidable influence exerted by their remittances on the world's economy, the voices and lives of their left behind dependents after their departure have continued to stay partially hidden in the migration literature (Toyota, Yeoh and Nguyen, 2007).

This study thus serves to augment the sparse but growing literature on the socio-cultural and economic circumstances of the left behind and how their lives have been complexly reshaped by the absence of key household persons as well as from the remittances they receive from the migrants eventually.

In this context, the study seeks to first understand the expectations and views that the left behind, particularly children below 12 years and their carers in both the Philippines and Indonesia, have on the remittances they receive, and how their perceptions ultimately influence the migrants' remitting behaviour.

Gender differences in terms of expectations from sons versus daughters, and remitting behaviours from fathers versus mothers will also be explored and subsequently compared across countries. Finally, the utilisation of migrants' remittances, focusing especially on the area of education, will be examined.