Leveraging collective remittances for community development? : a critical analysis of Mexico’s 3x1 program for migrants

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between collective remittance leveraging programs and community development in the Global South, with a focus on the case of Mexico’s 3x1 Program for Migrants. I will show that Mexico’s 3x1 Program for Migrants fails in its objective to foster participatory development among poor and marginalized communities, pointing out some of the limitations associated with this model of development. Further, by scoping out and linking this social program with the dominant discourse surrounding the relationship between migration, remittances, and development, I will argue that the discursive representation that positions migrants as “agents of development” acts to depoliticize the relationship between migration and underdevelopment in Mexico.