ECON/SOCI 5808: Migration & Microfinance
Fordham RH Summer 2021 TBA (email me for more information)
Preliminary 2021 Syllabus Past Calendar
Instructors: Darryl McLeod, Economics Department* Marciana Popescu, GSS Westchester, Norma Fuentes, Sociology, LALS Colin Powell School CCNY
E527 Dealy Hall 718 817-4045/0063 cell 914 661-6998* mcleod@fordham.edu
CIPS guest lecturers/CIPS: Alfredo Cuecuecha , UPAEP, Mexico Erica Mancinas, University of
Besley et. al 2017, The Gains from Financial Inclusion
IHHA Mobility, Money and Development June 9th 2017
IFAD June 16th 2017: Global Fund for Remittances and Investment International Day of Family Remittances
Of interest: Kevin’s Kiva Page New Yorker, 2017 Untangling the Immigration Debate Accion History 1970s California Package IFAD: Remittances Stabilize Families Migration Lecture Notes Monday June 6th
Course description: This inter-disciplinary course introduces students to research on remittances, international migration, microfinance, mobile banking, diaspora enterprises and other social innovations that can increase gender equity and speed economics growth. Our focus is immigrants in the United States as well as nations where women, immigrants and the working poor take a leading role in the migration process but also in micro-enterprising through remittances and social innovation (e.g. Mexico, India, Dominican Republic, Peru, Bangladesh, and Kenya). Does access to remittance or loans help alleviate poverty or enhance the probability of immigration and employment particularly the socio economic mobility of women and their children in both the sending and receiving, host societies? What role does the United Nations as well as the World Bank and other ‘mediating’ institutions (such as NGOs and MFIs) play in the globalization of migration and labor, or in the feminization of ‘credit’ among the poor? Are women agents of social change or unwittingly serve the needs of global capitalists in this new form of ‘bottom-up’ economics? How are remittances and micro financing new forms of development and what government or private interventions must take place to increase the banking or formalization of poor people’s capital? Through lectures and class discussions, including presentations by invited experts, students will further explore how families in poor and developing nations can benefit from remittance and micro-enterprising as well as investments. Interdisciplinary case studies from Mexico, the DR, the US, India and Africa illustrate how migration financial inclusion affect employment, poverty and women’s status.
Guest lecturers: To encourage relevant research projects, a number of international and local experts on migration, microfinance and development will be invited as guest lecturers. In addition, students will be introduced to ongoing research projects at the Center for International policy studies (CIPS), an interdisciplinary research center that has sponsored three conferences on immigration, remittances and crisis recovery (Haiti). New York has a rich array NGOs and CBOs the OEM, the Financial Clinic Les Peoples Credit Union and many immigration organizations. Students participate in class discussions and prepare a final presentation related to this couse. Class project/presentation: Students will prepare a migration or financial inclusion/social innovation case study involving financial inclusion or migration or TDEs. Two presentations will be made in class, one 20 minutes presentation summarizing their case study topic and readings for feedback in the class. Students should prepare a brief outline or a presentation including references for posting or distribution to the class. Sources for the paper or power point should be clear and for all key facts, tables, and figures. The link to course readings and lectures should be clear. The last slide or page should include references in standard author (date) title, publisher format (not just urls, though these nice to have). Course Requirements: Students should participate in class discussions, answer weekly discussion questions with answers submitted answers submitted to mcleodassign@gmail.com (be sure to put ECON 5808 in the subject). Students will also prepare the paper/presentation discussed above related to social innovation and involving immigration, remittances or financial access. Reading and discussion questions will be posted on the course calendar after each lecture.
Primary texts: (recommended and required readings from these books in addition to selected articles below):
- World Bank 2014 Global Financial Development Report, Financial Inclusion, pdf, with slides and the FINDEX database
- Armendáriz, Beatriz and Jonathan Morduch (2010) The Economics of Microfinance, 2nd Ed. MIT
- Press, Boston, look inside. May 2010 (PAPER) ISBN-10:0-262-51398-6 (<$26 for paper new or used)
- Collins, D. et al. (2009). Portfolios of the poor: how the world’s poor live on $2 day, Princeton, Princeton
- University Press. Gates Foundation photos-slides $10 Kindle ISBN 0691141480
- Collier, Paul (2013) Exodus, Oxford University Press,
- Hondagneu-Sotelo (editor) 2003. Gender and US Immigration: Contemporary Trends. University of
- California Press. ISBN 0-520-23739-0 (<$10 used)
- Morrison, Andrew, Maurice Schiff, and Mirja Sjöblom (2008) The International Migration of Women,
- Palgrave, World Bank, Overview *ISBN 0821372270 (kindle $17.50)
- Roy, Ananya (2010) Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development (paper)
- Routledge, New York ($7-13 kindle) 0415876737 ($20 used) especially chapter 1 and chapter 3.
Refugees from the Iron Triangle
China at a Lewis Turning Point\ Podcasts:
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/08/514152963/episode-436-if-economists-controlled-the-borders
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/30/444800350/episode-654-when-the-boats-arrive
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/gborjas/publications/journal/JEL2015.pdf
http://www.gdsnet.org/MigrationMobilityInequalityCCNY2017v2.pdf