Labor mobility and rural development: the use of remittances in Ayuan and Ajoa, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This thesis attempts an holistic analysis of cash remittances from migrants in paid employment, within the context of a labor reserve in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. The basic issue is the degree to which money sent or brought back to the village by wage laborers is invested (as in trade stores or cash crops), saved, conspicuously consumed (as payment for imported food itmes), or used to finance further departures from the local community. Are remittances to rural communities sufficiently large that they can be used: first, to compensate the origin community for the losses from outward movement (as the loss of local labor and skills); and secondly, to contribute to social and economic development in rural areas from which wage laborers are drawn by, among other things, increasing the availability of capital?