With the recent proliferation of research on social remittances, we need to be reminded that not everything non-material connected to migration is a social remittance. Recently many studies which feature in fact an acknowledgment of potential social remittances by migrants in destination places claim an extended exploration of social remittances. Are they really social remittances? Social remitting was proved to be a multi-stage process with: acquisition, transfer and outcome of transfer connected to localities and communities (cf. Grabowska & Garapich 2016; Grabowska at al. 2017). Many studies seems to capture the first stage only – an acquisition of potential social remittances. This shortcoming might impact on the results.

This research program has three aims: (1) to discuss what is and what is not (or not yet) social remittance; (2) to remind that social remittances are constructed within the process of social remitting including stages and (transnational) relations between an origin and a destination; (3) to reflect why we need social remittances in researching social change.

Contributions:

Book projects:

1. White A., Grabowska I., Kaczmarczyk P., Slany K. (2018). The Impact of Migration on Poland. London: UCL Press [open access].
2. Grabowska I., Garapich M.P., Jazwinska E., Radziwinowicz A. (2017). Migrants as Agents of Change. Social remittances in an enlarged European Union.Basingstoke, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Articles & chapters:

3. White A., Grabowska I.(2019). Social Remittances and Social Change in Central and Eastern Europe Embedding Migration in the Study of Society. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 8(1): 33-50.
4. Grabowska I., Buler M. (2019). The centenary of the Polish Peasant in Europe and America through the contemporary concept of social remittances. Polish Sociological Review, 1(205): 85-102.
5. Grabowska I. (2018). Social Remittances: Channels of Diffusion. In: White A., Grabowska I., Kaczmarczyk P., Slany K. (2018). The Impact of Migration on Poland: EU Mobility and Social Change, London: UCL Press, 68-89.
6. Grabowska I.(2018). Social skills, workplaces and social remittances: A case of post-accession migrants. Work, Employment and Society, 32(5): 868-886.
7. Jaźwińska E., Grabowska I.(2017). Efekty społecznych przekazów migracyjnych (social remittances) w polskich społecznościach lokalnych. Studia Socjologiczne, 1, 139-165.
8. Grabowska I., Garapich M.P. (2016) (eds.). Special Issue: Social Remittances and Central and Eastern Europe: New Theoretical Angles and Empirical Landscapes. Central and Eastern European Migration Review,5(2).
9. Grabowska I., Garapich M. (2016). Mapping Social Remittances and Segmented Development in Central and Eastern EuropeCentral and Eastern European Migration Review, 5(2): 5-13.
10. Grabowska I., Engbersen G. (2016). Social Remittances and the Impact of Temporary Migration on an EU Sending Country: The Case of Poland. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 5(2), 99–117.
11. Grabowska I., Garapich M.P. (2016). Social remittances and intra-EU mobility: Non-financial transfers between UK and Poland.Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42 (13), 2146-2162.