Migration and Remittances in South Africa: the role of political factors

This paper looks at the determinants of international remittances in the case of South-South migrations. Using micro-economic data from a survey conducted in 2006, analysis was carried out on 639 African migrants residing in Johannesburg. Because of the diversity of the reasons of migration to South Africa and the regime change in this country, the paper focuses on the impact of the conditions of departure (forced/non forced) and of the political environment in the host country on remittances. So, besides the traditional variables (income, household's size in the host country, age, sex, education…), the conditions of departure from the country of origin (war, conflict, persecutions), the regime change in the host country and subjective variables (perception of relative wealth, attachment to the country of origin) are used in the analysis. The potential endogeneity bias of the attachment variable is corrected to obtain non biased estimations of the model. The results highlight the importance of the political factors as determinants of remittances. Both the conditions of departure and the political environment in the host country (access to democracy) influence the propensity to remit. The fact of having fled one's country of origin because of violence or conflict has a negative effect on the propensity to remit, whereas the access to the democracy impacts positively remittances. Subjective variables also impact significantly and positively the transfers. The migrants who follow the political affairs of their country of origin or who think that they were worse off economically before coming in South Africa have a higher propensity to remit.