Anthropology Professor Authors World Bank Report on Migration and Remittances During Global Financial Crisis

Jeffrey Cohen, associate professor of anthropology and a leading expert on migration and its effects in developing countries, along with Ibrahim Sirkeci (Regent’s College London) and Dilip Ratha (Migration and Remittances Unit, World Bank), authored a new World Bank Report analyzing how remittances and mirgrant worker behavior were affected by the economic crisis of 2008. The report, Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond. was produced with support of External Affairs, the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, and the Development Prospects Group at the World Bank. 

The financial crisis of 2008 started with the collapse of the financial sector in the United States and Western Europe, then quickly spread to countries around the globe. There were fears that the 2008-09 global recession would result in the widespread return of migrants and declining remittances to developing countries. These fears were not realized, and this book explains why. 

The authors explore several important topics including how the crisis impacted remittance practices globally and how migrants adjusted to meet the challenge of the resulting recession. Migrants from around the globe faced the challenges of the crisis and strategically responded, rethinking their roles, work, and remittances practices. Cohen and fellow editors document that migrants did not and do not drain resources from struggling national economies. Instead, migrants and their remittances are central to the economic health of the households and countries from which they have come.

Cohen has authored several books, including Cooperation and Community: Economy and Society in Oaxaca, Economic Development: An Anthropological Approach, The Culture of Migration in Southern Mexico and The Cultures of Migration: The Global Nature of Contemporary Movement. He is also co-editor of Migration Letter.

 Read more about Cohen’s book at http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/migration-and-remittances-during-the-global-economic-crisis-and-beyond-myths-and-realities. For more information, contact Professor Cohen at cohen.319@osu.edu.