Return to Sender is an anthropological account of how Peruvian emigrants raise and remit money and what that activity means for themselves and for their home communities. The book draws on first-hand ethnographic data from North and South America, Europe, and Japan to describe how Peruvians remit to relatives at home, collectively raise money to organize development projects in their regions of origin, and invest savings in business and other activities. Karsten Paerregaard challenges unqualified approval of remittances as beneficial resources of development for home communities and important income for home countries. He finds a more complex situation in which remittances can also create dependency and deprivation.
About the AuthorKarsten Paerregaard is a professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Gothenburg. He was a fellow at the Wilson Center in 2009-10.
Book InformationISBN 9780520284746
Author Karsten PaerregaardFormat Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint University of California PressPublisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 408g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm