Remittances and development: Zimbabwean migrant teachers in South Africa and their impact on their Zimbabwean families
Population studies
30
Issue: 2
(11 - 2016)
This paper contends that the unprecedented migration of Zimbabwean teachers into South Africa has
transformed the well-being of their families in Zimbabwe positively. In some cases, poverty at
household level has even been alleviated as a result of remittances sent to Zimbabwean households of
the Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa. On the strength of human development impacts such as
increased household income and consumption, savings and asset accumulation, improved access to
health and nutrition and access to better education identified in this research, it is possible to
hypothesize that professional Zimbabwean migrant teachers in South Africa who maintain ties with
their home country do indeed make a positive contribution to their own families’ and households’
human development needs back home in Zimbabwe.
Keywords: Zimbabwean migrant teachers, poverty, migrant families, households, human development
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