Migration, Remittances and Children's Schooling in Haiti
The paper explores the use of remittances to school children left behind in migrant communities in Haiti by answering two main questions: (1) To what extent do remittances permit households to increase their investment in education? (2) Given the high levels of poverty in Haiti, can households spare some of these inflows of remittances to enhance the educational attainment of children? The research is based on data from the Latin American Migration Project (LAMP), which contains detailed social, demographic, and economic data about approximately 300 households and a total of 1,575 individuals. In particular, the survey contains information about whether a household receives remittances from abroad, the emigration of family members, and the educational attainment of all household members. The results of the research demonstrate that remittances raise school attendance for all children in communities characterized by an abundance of private, parochial and public schools, regardless of whether they have household members abroad or not. However, remittances only raise school attendance for children in communities which lack easy school access. The overall findings lead to the paradoxical conclusion that while the receipt of remittances by the household lifts some budget constraints and raises children's likelihood of being schooled, the disruptive effect of household out-migration imposes an economic burden on the remaining household members and reduces their likelihood of being schooled. As such, remittances mitigate the negative disruptive effect of household out-migration on children's schooling and, given the substantial costs of schooling in Haiti, contribute to the accumulation of human capital in the midst of extreme poverty.