Remittances and Transnational Vulnerabilities across the
Zimbabwean Diaspora

School of Geography, University of Leeds

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Summary:

Zimbabwe's continuing humanitarian crisis has triggered substantial international migration to the UK and compelled overseas Zimbabweans to remit crucial foreign exchange and other forms of support to family members remaining in Zimbabwe. Such is the scale of these transfers that many in the international policy community regard the managed flow of remittances as a cornerstone to a post-crisis Zimbabwe. Others remain sceptical that pressuring already marginalised immigrants to divert hard-earned wages overseas only deepens their vulnerability. Indeed, many of these remitters find themselves in increasingly tenuous circumstances, due to a cocktail of uncertain and changing asylum provisions, increased competition for unskilled and semi-skilled job opportunities, and exploitation in some unregulated sectors of the economy. Yet again, this is also a time of tremendous opportunity for those able to exploit the significant gap between the official exchange rate and the black market rate within Zimbabwe, and for those connected in some way with the emerging remittance industry.





It is against this dynamic context that this West Yorkshire based research explores how Zimbabwean immigrants are organising their remitting activities. We focus on three main areas:

First, the range of current remitting strategies, including who remits, what do they remit, why do they remit, and what might be expected in return;

Second, the sources of vulnerability and opportunity that constrain and enable remitting. These may be related to various laws - including immigration, asylum, and employment - and how these laws are understood to apply to groups, and to patterns of community organisation, including the roles that individuals are expected to fulfil;

Third, the implications for Zimbabweans in the UK, for post-crisis Zimbabwe and, more generally, for the development of policies that use remittances as a tool to accomplish development targets, including the Millennium Development Goals.

West Yorkshire is home to a large Zimbabwean community about which we know very little. Using a combination of mixed methods, including a community survey and in depth interviews, our primary fieldwork responds directly to the sentiment expressed by then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who, in December 2005, noted that: "the government intends to keep the amount and destination of remittances and their contribution to development under review." While based in the UK, the project's international steering group will enable the findings to enter directly into regional and ongoing discussions about post-crisis Zimbabwe, such as the Mbeki-moderated and Southern Africa Development Community-led process.

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Project Newsletter July/Aug 2008

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