Remittances as a currency of care : a focus on 'twice migrants' among the Indian diaspora in Australia

Remittances to developing countries have become the focus of increasing attention as they are the largest international flow of money, larger than foreign direct investment and more than double the size of foreign aid (Development Prospects Group, 2007). Policy makers and economists have focused overwhelmingly on remittances from North-South because of their greater total value. South-South remittances have not received the same attention, though they impact nearly the same number of families. This lack of attention to South-South remittances is important for as Ratha et al. (2008) note South-South migration is nearly as large as South-North migration (Ratha, Mohapatra and Xu, 2008).