Gender, age, and exclusion: a challenge to community organisations in Lima, Peru.

PIP: This article examines the role of two successful grassroots women's organizations in empowering women in old age in Lima, Peru. These organizations include Comedores Populares (soup kitchens) and the Vaso de Leche (glass of milk) Program. The primary goal of both groups is poverty alleviation, specifically through improved nutrition. Through them, women have lobbied on issues such as provision of education and health services, and campaigned against the guerrilla insurgency of the 1980s and the early 1990s. However, evidence from three low-income settlements on the outskirts of Lima implied that no long-term support is available from these organizations to promote the welfare of elderly people. Also, the contribution that elderly members of households make to the work of the organizations is invisible and undervalued. Thus, these findings clearly suggest that even the most successful New Social Movements in Lima are also passive members of society in need of charity.^ieng

Return migration to Jamaica and its development potential.

PIP: The return of migrants to Jamaica is closely associated with the persistence of the transnational household, which is established between the family members abroad and those who remain in Jamaica. The strength of transnational linkages is strongly determined by the manner and purpose of migration, by whether the migration involves an individual or a family, and the extent of the migrant's obligations in compensation for the neglect of responsibilities during his or her absence. Remittances precede, accompany, and follow the return of migrants. There was a consistent increase in remittances during the 1990s; they increased in revenue from US$183.3 million in 1991 to US$668.7 million in 1997. Quantitative statistics on return migration to Jamaica have only been gathered officially since 1992. Data showed a steady increase in the volume of return migration from 1992 to 1997. The largest numbers of returning residents were recorded in 1993 (2493) and in 1994 (2417). The majority of the migrants came from the US followed by the UK. A smaller percentage of return migrants came from Canada and other locations, chiefly Caribbean countries. Seeing potential in the Jamaican overseas community, the Government of Jamaica has established programs, such as the Return of Talent program, to encourage the return of its nationals. Two factors have had an impact on return migration to Jamaica: 1) the characteristics of the migrants in terms of skill level, experience, and attitudes and 2) the social and economic condition of the country itself.^ieng

Migration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution.

"This paper examines the net effects of migration and remittances on income distribution. Potential home earnings of migrants are imputed, as are the earnings of non-migrants in migrant households, in order to construct no-migration counterfactuals to compare with the observed income distribution including remittances. The earnings functions used to impute migrant home earnings are estimated from observations on non-migrants in a selection-corrected estimation framework which incorporates migration choice and labor-force participation decisions. For a sample of households in Bluefields, Nicaragua, migration and remittances increase income inequality when compared with the no-migration counterfactual."

Social remittances: migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion.

"Many studies highlight the macro-level dissemination of global culture and institutions. This article focuses on social remittances--a local-level, migration-driven form of cultural diffusion. Social remittances are the ideas, behaviors, identities, and social capital that flow from receiving- to sending-country communities. The role that these resources play in promoting immigrant entrepreneurship, community and family formation, and political integration is widely acknowledged. This article specifies how these same ideas and practices are remolded in receiving countries, the mechanisms by which they are sent back to sending communities, and the role they play in transforming sending-country social and political life." The data concern migrants from the Dominican Republic to the Boston area of the United States.

[Labor migration to the United States by natives from the State of Mexico]. / Migracion laboral hacia Estados Unidos de los oriundos del Estado de Mexico.

PIP: Based primarily on data from the Encuesta sobre Migracion en la Frontera Norte de Mexico, results of a study of international migration from the Mexican state of Mexico to the United States over time are presented The author notes that from 1942 to 1964, labor migration between the two countries was organized under an agreement between the two governments concerned. However, since that agreement ended, an increasing volume of illegal labor migration has occurred in response to the economic situation. Attention is given to migrant characteristics, the characteristics of illegal immigrants deported back to Mexico, and migrant remittances.^ieng

[The policies of structural adjustment and population policies and their effect on demographic aging]. / Las politicas de ajuste estructural y las politicas de poblacion con referencia a los procesos de envejecimiento.

PIP: This work argues that policies derived from the structural adjustment programs imposed upon Mexico by international financial institutions will have devastating effects on the living conditions of the elderly. The spread of poverty and the disappearance of social security systems based on the principal of generational solidarity affect ever larger proportions of the aged. Lack of pensions and of employment opportunities sentence many to misery in their last years. Because of demographic aging resulting from reduced fertility and mortality levels, the elderly will comprise an increasing share of the population. The change is particularly significant for women, who most often care for the elderly and whose greater survival at a time of smaller families will lead many to live alone in poverty. Social security reforms produced by the adjustment leave increasing proportions of women unprotected, despite their earlier economic activity. It is evident that the differential effects of aging on men and women are another reflection of gender inequity, exacerbated by adjustment policies. Public actions to confront the problems of older adults should be part of a population policy contained within an integrated social policy. It remains to be seen whether a model featuring reduced state action will be capable of explicit policies and concrete programs to protect the elderly.^ieng

[The next step for population policies]. / La siguiente etapa de las politicas de poblacion.

PIP: In modern and postmodern societies, age has been transformed into a symbol of isolation, sadness, poverty, physical and mental inactivity, and economic and emotional burden for families, societies, and nations. Humanity has struggled to postpone death through medical advances and greater life expectancy. Declines in mortality and fertility lead inexorably to demographic aging. In Mexico, as in many other societies, poverty is concentrated at the beginning and end of life. While it has undeniably been an achievement to add years to life, social and cultural changes in response to demographic aging and greater life expectancy have not occurred. The additional years have not been accompanied by social actions that provide the elderly with a dignified and tranquil life free from want. In 1965, Mexico's population over 65 years of age was 1.7 million, accounting for 4.6% of the population, life expectancy was 57.9 years, and the total fertility rate was 6.9. In 1995, 4.4% of the population was over 65 years of age and the total fertility rate was 2.8. By 2030, a projected 17 million, or 13.1%, will be over 65 years old. The future demographic profile is the result of societal desires for better health, longer life, and fewer children living in better circumstances. The great challenge of the next century will be to create strategies, policies, and programs to attend to population aging. Collective awareness must be created of the material and other needs of the elderly, and the sociopolitical system must adapt in response.^ieng

[The remittances in U.S. dollars that Mexican migrants send home from the United States (a study based on data from the Survey of Migration in the Northern Frontier Region of Mexico)]. / Las remesas de dolares que envian los migrantes mexicanos desde Estados Unidos (medicion a traves de la Encuesta de Migracion en la Frontera Norte de Mexico).

PIP: The difficulties in obtaining reliable data on remittances to Mexico by Mexican immigrants in the United States are first outlined. An analysis of such remittances is then attempted using data from a recent survey, the Encuesta sobre Migracion en la Frontera Norte. Data from this survey are used to analyze several aspects of remittances "such as the direct determination of the amount of the remittances and the identification of the immigrants that send them according to their social and demographic features, and the location of Mexican zones where the remittances arrive, [and] the variations in the amount and frequency of the remittances among the different groups of immigrants." (EXCERPT)^ieng

Remittances and inequality: a question of migration stage and geographic scale.

The impact of migrant remittances on the place of migrant origin is examined using data from a 1988 household study undertaken in central Zacatecas state, Mexico. The focus is on whether remittances tend to increase or to decrease income inequalities. "Interfamilial inequalities are found first to decrease and then to increase as a place's migration experience deepens. Throughout this experience, however, rural incomes improve relative to urban ones, since remittances are targeted to the predominantly rural areas of origin."

Consequences of migration and remittances for Mexican transnational communities.

"Our aims in this paper are to broaden explanation of remittance expenditures and to evaluate the positive contributions of remittances, return migrants, or circulating sojourners. Specifically focusing on the situation in ¿home' communities, we illustrate the multifaceted consequences of remittances and migration, emphasizing positive nonmonetary and social impacts." Data are from ethnographic research carried out in 1992-1993 in Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Saving time: rural Honduran women working for change.

PIP: The author discusses some recommendations that arose out of field research in northern Honduras. The research included policy recommendations to the International Development Research Center Project for Participatory Research in Central America (IPCA) on gender issues. The IPCA aims to build the research capacity of small hillside farmers by involving them in the design and evaluation of appropriate agricultural technologies. The author states that women are not an "underused asset" as Ostergard (1992) contends. Women are heavily burdened workers who provide in their reproductive roles essential services for maintaining agricultural production and for sustaining the family for the next agricultural cycle and the next generations. Women's housework is hard and time-consuming. There is a need for time- and energy-saving technology for domestic chores if living conditions are to be improved. IPCA programs must develop flexible programs to fit women's needs and to include women fully in the participatory process. Useful technologies could be community mills for grinding corn and improved stoves. Cooking and grinding corn are both labor-intensive tasks. In another community outside the study area, women travel to a community mill under private ownership for corn grinding that costs about 30 cents per day. The women reported that the cost is worth the time and energy saved. The mill also serves as a community gathering place. Women could potentially pool resources and operate a cooperative mill service. Lorena stoves are popular due to reduced fuel consumption, time saved in collecting wood, savings in cooking time, and fewer respiratory problems. Decisions would need to be made about venting smoke outside or continuing to use the smoke to dry grains in lofts overhead. Men need to be made aware of women's needs and women's opportunities to engage in income generation activities owing to the time saved.^ieng

Refugee remittances: conceptual issues and the Cuban and Nicaraguan experiences.

"This article assesses the notion that the determinants of remittances generated by refugee flows, particularly from Communist-inspired systems, are different from those associated with labor migrations....These differences have a major bearing on how labor migrants and refugees perceive their relationship with countries of origin. The propensity of labor migrants to dissociate themselves from the home country is considerably less than among refugees whose perceptions are mediated by opposition to the ruling regime and other factors, such as political relations between refugee-sending and refugee-receiving countries and whether or not there has been a regime change or one is expected to occur. The conceptual issues elaborated here are based on the Cuban-American experience, but also reflect an assessment of Nicaraguan emigration during the 1980s."

Voices of impoverished Brazilian women: health implications of roles and resources.

This qualitative study was based on individual interviews with 75 Brazilian women in an impoverished peri-urban squatter community (favela) in southeastern Brazil. The purposes of the study were to describe women's role involvement in domestic and employment contexts; identify stresses and satisfactions of maternal, spousal, and employment roles; and assess personal and environmental role constraints and resources from the perspective of women's health. The analytic approach to the interview data was qualitative content analysis, through which thematic categories of maternal, spousal, and employment role satisfactions and stresses were identified by the researchers. Women's unrelenting work in the face of harsh social and economic environments was a broad theme woven throughout the women's descriptions of their lives. The confluence of role constraints affecting the participants' lives included poverty, marginalization, abuse, and lack of support and recognition by partners and society. In order to overcome great adversity and meet heavy role demands, these women relied on self, faith in God, family, and health resources. Implications for women's health promotion are discussed.

PIP: This article describes a qualitative study of women's role in an impoverished peri-urban squatter community in Brazil. The convenience sample included 75 women, comprised of Roman Catholics (51%), Protestants (17%), Spiritists (17%), and unreligiously-affiliated (11%). 26 women were illiterate. 49 had some primary school education. 59% had income that was below the poverty line. 92% reported their income as inadequate. 17 households did not have piped water, and 5 households did not have electricity. None had telephones. Only 28 had refrigerators. Interviews were conducted at the local health post among a sample that was largely unexposed to the questionnaire survey process, which sometimes posed difficulties. Attempts were made to seek out divergent cases or experiences and alternative explanations. Findings indicate that all the women identified themselves as the member of the household responsible for domestic housekeeping, and all saw that role as their most time- and energy-consuming. Most had at least 1 child. 72% were married, and 16% lived with a male partner. 12% were single, widowed, or divorced. Most were dependent upon spouses for economic support. 29 women had some employment outside the home. Women reported the lack of child care as a major reason for not being employed. There were other barriers. The women valued their role as mothers, but work and worries were dominant themes. Women complained about their partner's alcohol and drug misuse, domestic violence, and a lack of appreciation or affection. Working women reported socioeconomic satisfaction and work overload. Women's living conditions were harsh. Women showed considerable inner strength and creativity in dealing with demands and stresses.

[A cross-cultural perspective of intergenerational transfers]. / Una perspectiva transcultural de las transferencias intergeneracionales.

PIP: The intergenerational reallocation of resources in different economic and cultural systems is explored with a focus on three major types of systems--accumulation and loss of capital, transactions of credit, and direct gifts for transfers. The geographical focus is on both developing and developed countries.^ieng

[Rural emigration in the inter-Andean valleys of Bolivia]. / L'emigration rurale dans les vallees inter-andines de Bolivie.

"Inscribed within an ancient national tradition, rural emigration in the interandean valleys of Bolivia is gaining importance. The country's contemporary crises and the immigration policies of the host countries maintain the flux trend towards Argentina while enabling new destination targets: the United States, and more recently Israel and Japan. In these Bolivian lands, the emigration derived income provides the driving force of family economies and triggers development of the local territory. At the same time, emigration induces a process of socio-economic differentiation in peasant communities which weakens the food-system and increases family nutritional risks in the populations marginal to this migration system. In addition to these mutations there is a strong sociocultural destructuring which affects community-cohesion in local societies." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

[The importance of children for the elderly and changes in reproductive behavior (a study of three rural communities in Mexico)]. / Importancia de los hijos en la vejez y cambios en el comportamiento reproductivo (estudio en tres comunidades rurales de Mexico).

"This study analyzes the importance of children in the care of elderly populations in rural communities [in Mexico].... In particular, the perception of elders about the value of their children is analyzed, especially the role children play in their economic contribution to the household or their instrumental value to it at different stages of their lives.... With respect [to] the condition in which children support their parents in their old age the economic assistance given was studied too. Finally, the preference regarding family size of those 60 years or older [is] given, as well as the view points of women on the need to control fertility and reduce family size. Three different types of cost are studied: the economic cost of supporting and caring for children, the emotional cost of their upbringing and the health cost of multiple pregnancies and births." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

[International migration in Central America in the 1990s: causes, implications, and consequences]. / Las migraciones internacionales en Centroamerica en la decada de los noventa: causas, implicaciones y consecuencias.

"After [reviewing] the demographic and historical backgrounds as well as the situation in each individual country in the area, the author concludes that migrations in Central America have been originated and influenced mainly by social and economic causes, as well as by social-political conflicts in the area, the latter affecting especially El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama. Although bringing some relief to the families through remittances of money earned abroad, the general effects are negative for countries of origin, due to the loss of labor [and] ruptures in family relations. On the other hand, they significantly influence labor markets in the countries of destination, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the United States. The countries in the area must now prepare themselves to receive many of those migrants back home." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

[Main migration trends and economic internationalization in Colombia]. / Principales tendencias de los procesos migratorios en Colombia y la internacionalizacion de la economia.

The author examines migration flows to and from Colombia and notes that "Colombia has been experiencing in the last decades different kinds of spatial mobility, towards the United States, Europe, Venezuela and other countries in Latin America. Since the 80s return flows have become important." The impacts on migration of improved education and women's status, and the lack of legal employment opportunities are examined. (SUMMARY IN ENG)

[Rural women. Public health workshop of the Centro de Investigaciones en Psicologia Social]. / Mujer rural. Taller de salud publica del Centro de Investigaciones en Psicologia Social.

PIP: Mexico's peasant sector is undergoing great change as a result of the insertion of capitalist relations into areas that were previously remote. The traditional peasant subsistence economy has been displaced, and peasants have been forced to adopt a series of new strategies for survival, entailing proletarianization or selling of labor. Women in the community of San Nicolas Zoyapetlayoca, in the municipio of Tepeaca, have lived in a situation of poverty and precariousness for some time. Most of the population historically depended on the neighboring haciendas for their livelihood. Women and children also worked there, mistreated and without social protection. The lands that were distributed after the Revolution are insufficient to support the community, and most families must look elsewhere for employment. Incomes are insufficient to cover all the necessities of education, health, nutrition, and other aspects of life. Most women are educated no farther than the primary level. They spend most of their time preparing food, carrying water, washing clothes, caring for their children, and in other domestic chores. Some women work for wages as laborers, factory workers, or domestics. Rural women are disadvantaged by poor working conditions, insufficient education, low levels of health and nutrition, limited participation in social and political life, poor housing and lack of services, and frequently by their own attitudes of traditionalism or fatalism.^ieng

[Demographic aging and social security. The insufficiency of old age pensions]. / Envejecimiento demografico y seguridad social. La insuficiencia de las pensiones por vejez.

PIP: The demographic transition is leading to demographic aging in Mexico, as lower fertility and greater life expectancy combine to produce absolute and percentage increases in the elderly population. Concern is growing about satisfying the material needs of the elderly population. Only a few developed countries are able to furnish adequate pensions to their retired workers through social security systems. In Mexico, class inequity is a greater determinant of the level of pension coverage than is generational solidarity. Mexico's 1990 census showed that the population of 81,250,000 was comprised of 24,517,000 economically active and 56,733,000 inactive persons. Of the 24,517,000 economically active, 7,282,000 mostly lower level employees and laborers were affiliated only with the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). 2,308,000 were covered by the IMSS and one of the complementary pension systems sponsored by the largest and most organized private companies. 2,629,000 were entitled to pensions through public sector employment and 584,000 through quasipublic employment. The remaining 11,571,000 had no rights to a pension. In other words, 47% of the labor force was not covered by any retirement pension system. 375,000 of the 5,007,000 persons over age 60 in the economically inactive population had some sort of pension from the IMSS. In 1990, 92% received the minimum pension, equivalent to 70% of the minimum salary. 229,000 had an IMSS pension and a complementary private pension. 196,000 pensioners in the public sector received an average pension of 1.5 times the minimum salary. 66,000 retired workers in quasipublic enterprises received pensions with automatic adjustments for inflation that frequently equaled 20 times the minimum salary. The total number of recipients of pensions of all types was 888,000,leaving 4,119,000 persons over 60 with no pension. Because of the deficiencies of the social security system, families must continue to be the institution that aids the elderly.^ieng