Enhance the links between migration and investment in education
Education plays a crucial role in individual and national development. Although households use their remittances to finance the education of their children, emigration still seems to have a negative effect on school attendance, especially among young women. The type of education programmes analysed in this study do not seem to have much effect on household migration decisions, possibly because they are largely based on in-kind support and of fairly limited coverage. This raises two policy implications:
- • Increase investments in education infrastructure to ensure quality and access to meet the growing demand for education driven by remittances.
- • Expand cash and in-kind distribution programmes in areas with high emigration rates to make sure that young people, and especially girls, have the means to complete secondary education.
Strengthen the links between migration, investment, financial services and development
The IPPMD research finds an insignificant or sometimes even negative relationship between remittances, return migration and investments. The results indicate that there are barriers to investments in Armenia, particularly pronounced in rural areas. Key actions are needed to remove these barriers, which include the low coverage of financial service institutions and financial training programmes in rural areas:
- • Expand financial service provision, especially in rural areas, by increasing competition among service providers and adapting the regulatory framework.
- • Invest in financial training programmes, especially targeted at return migrants and households with emigrants.
- • Facilitate business start-up, for example by providing business management courses and access to credit to encourage remittance investments in new businesses.
