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Countervailing Effects? Remittance Sending and the Physical and Mental Health of Migrants

Balasca, Coralia
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1575466424352253

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Remittances, the money that immigrants send back to recipients in their country of origin, are one of the most prominent types of transnational economic ties and provide many migrants with continued interaction with family and friends who remain in their origin countries. These transactions may prove to be beneficial or detrimental to migrant mental and physical health. Using the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), I assess whether remittance-sending has countervailing associations with migrant mental and physical health. I hypothesize that remittance-sending puts migrants at a physical health disadvantage by depleting already lower incomes. I also hypothesize that remitting migrants experience a mental health bonus through fulfillment of family roles. Overall, I find that remittances are associated with a physical health disadvantage and only provide a mental health bonus under certain circumstances. I also find that the composition of migrants who select into remitting is consequential for health outcomes. And for both physical and mental health, the type of remittance transfer (to extended or nuclear family) and the magnitude of the transfer conditions the overall health impact, particularly for mental health. My findings underscore the complexity of transnational ties, in terms of who selects into transnational economic behavior (i.e. remittance sending), the type of behavior (magnitude and type of remittance transfer), and the health consequences, both physical and mental, of that behavior.
Reanne Frank, Dr. (Advisor)
Kristi Williams, Dr. (Committee Member)
Cynthia Colen, Dr. (Committee Member)
56 p.
Demographics; Demography; Families and Family Life; Finance; Health; Health Care; Hispanic Americans; Individual and Family Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Public Health; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology
immigration; immigrant; migrant; health; physical health; mental health; transnational ties; transnationalism; family; remittances; financial; family roles

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Balasca, C. (2019). Countervailing Effects? Remittance Sending and the Physical and Mental Health of Migrants [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1575466424352253

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Balasca, Coralia. Countervailing Effects? Remittance Sending and the Physical and Mental Health of Migrants. 2019. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1575466424352253.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Balasca, Coralia. "Countervailing Effects? Remittance Sending and the Physical and Mental Health of Migrants." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1575466424352253

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1575466424352253
311
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.