1To understand the impact of migrations, it is not enough to just focus on the people who migrate. One should also look at what happens to those who stay at home. To understand the links between these two populations, in 2007 a team of researchers took an interest in Senegalese migration, which has a wide variety of profiles. A simultaneous survey was initiated in four hosting countries: France, Italy, Côte d’Ivoire and Mauritania. In each of these destinations, investigators asked 300 Senegalese migrants about their situation and that of their loved ones back home.  Based on the information supplied by the migrants, they found the families in Senegal and asked them about the conditions under which the journey was undertaken and their perception of the migrant’s living conditions. This was the first time they had managed to obtain a set of matched data for some of the migrants.

Returning migrant, Burkina Faso.

2In addition to shedding light on the amounts of cash transfers made by migrants and on the processes implemented to guarantee their regularity (including the social control exercised by early settlers in receiving countries), the survey showed that the migrants’ perception of the material situation of families back home, and the families’ perception of the migrants’ lives, were both flawed. While families do not know much about the migrant’s situation, migrants tend to overestimate the family’s wealth, partly because the money sent to make investments or purchases is not spent as they thought it would be.

3This explains the recent development of tools (trading platforms and smartphone applications) allowing migrants to have foodstuffs delivered to their loved ones or collect vouchers from authorised traders, thus making sure they retain control over how the money they send is used. One of these tools is Ethicphone, a start-up company incubated by Bond’innov, of which IRD is a founding member.