Practices performed for human capability development

This sector consumed the second largest share of the sent remittances by the respondents, even though the maximum number of practices was performed in this sector. Again, the location of the performed practices in this sector has been kept as a prime element to ascertain their implications for urban development. It has also been found that the majority of the practices for human capabilities development for the family members in Pakistan were being performed either in the birthplaces or the last places of residence of the respondents. The practices which were performed in urban places have mainly been perceived as having implications for urban development.

Remittances for general consumption

Altogether, there were fourteen out of twenty respondents who remitted to support their families’ needs for general consumption. While inquiring further, it was revealed that all of the family members of the respondents were living in urban places of Pakistan except for

163 one case where the family of the respondent was living in a rural place in Punjab province.

This means that except for one case, all other cases sent money to be consumed in the urban places. So, in thirteen cases, the remittances, consumed for general purposes contributed towards the overall development of the urban places. Out of these thirteen cases, nine respondents sent their remittances more frequently to meet the living expenditures of the family members. While in four cases, these remittances were more sporadic and as such were not meant to subsidize the families’ living expenditures as with the previous cases. Those were sent in lieu of gifts etc. on certain occasions. So basically, these remittances contributed towards improving the quality of life and living standards of the family members and hence, had positive implications for the urban places.

Gifts sent/carried

In terms of gift articles carried/

sent to urban places, the majority of the items were garments, chocolates and mobile phones followed by routine domestic items, home appliances and laptops. There were only two respondents who explained that they carried or sent gifts which were not available in Pakistan and those two articles were actually home appliances mainly used for power failure conditions i.e. torch and chargeable batteries because of excessive power failures In Pakistan. In terms of the frequency of the respondents, almost half of the sent or carried gifts came under cultural urban change

domain, thus depicting the notion of immigrants as cultural carriers promoting mobile urbanism. The remainder of the gifts came under technological urban change domain.

Hence, the practice of sending/carrying gifts to the family members living in urban places has been perceived as having positive implications for urban places (Table 10.1).

Investing in social capital

This practice did not come out as the considered priority of many of the respondents as there were only three respondents who were investing in the education of their family members. In all the cases, the recipients of these investments were living in the urban places. In one case, a respondent was investing for schooling expenditures of his nephews and nieces. In a second case, a respondent was investing in the secondary level studies of his younger brother, while in the third case, a respondent was investing in the tertiary level education of his nephews. This practice has direct relation to the human capability development and is regarded as a positive development in every respect.

Table 10.1: Gifts sent/carried and urban change domain Gifted items No. of

resp. Urban change

domain Total

Garments 8 Cultural 34

Chocolates 8

Routine domestic items 7

Cosmetics 6

Chapter 10 Implications for Urban Development

164 Transport modes purchased

There were two respondents who remitted for the purchase of transport modes. One respondent remitted for the purchase of a motorcycle for his nephew while another remitted for the purchase of a car for his family. Both of these transport modes were purchased in urban places and therefore, were added primarily on the urban roads. Though, the increased vehicular modes contribute negative environmental aspects to urban development, however, in view the inefficient public urban transport system in Pakistan, I perceived this activity as a positive development for the family members. This practice expanded the range of travelling opportunities for the family members and also improved the overall quality of the life and living standards of the concerned families. Further, it has also been regarded as an urban development indicator by the World Bank (see Table 3.1).

Gender inclusion

Altogether, half of the respondents made consultations with female members of their families for performing various practices, performed practices benefiting the female members, or took assistance from them in carrying out various practices. Most actively, there was a respondent whose wife managed the construction of his house in an urban place. In some cases, female members offered their services in order to facilitate the marriages of the respondents. With most of the cases, female members were the beneficiaries of various performed practices, especially for the remittances sent for meeting their general consumption needs. So in that sense, female members remained an integral part to perform various practices in the urban places and thus contributed positively for the social domain of the urban development.

Customary practices for getting married

In total, there were four respondents who themselves got married in Pakistan during the study period for which they were sending remittances, while there was another respondent who remitted during the same time for the marriage of his sister. Out of these five cases, the wedding events in four cases took place in urban places while in one case, it was carried out in a rural location. The customary practice of getting married is normally an important and expensive event in Pakistan. Generally, a wedding ceremony lasts for three consecutive days with different events, rituals and celebrations, requiring that preparations start in advance of the actual wedding. A normal wedding event generates a lot of associated activities, mainly the shopping activity in certain commercial markets and thriving of the business of marriage halls and restaurants. It also causes significantly increased mobility due to the invited guests from distant locations, even travelling from distant urban or rural places to attend the wedding events. Sometimes, even renting of houses for a short period of time is required to accommodate the invited guests. In this light, one respondent reflected that the sole reason for improving the conditions and extending of one of their family houses was to accommodate guests invited to attend his sister’s wedding. They, in fact, vacated one of their rental house, improved the conditions of the house, added some space by constructing one more habitable room and accommodated their guests in that particular house. While there was not an estimate available for the amount of remittances

165 explicitly sent for that purpose, a respondent revealed that, for a single dining event for one of the days of marriage, he remitted around 600 Euro.

Further, this is also a sort of investment in the social capital embodied in the creation of a new family unit, i.e. the new households in many cases. This also involves the internal migration of female spouses to the places of residences of male partners. For this study, in three out of four cases of marriages supported by the respondents, the respondents’

spouses even emigrated to join their spouses in Germany during the study period. In one particular case, the spouse of a respondent was still living in his family home in Pakistan at the time of data collection. In one of the aforementioned cases, it was revealed that a respondent further assisted his spouse’s acquisition of a student visa to complete her tertiary level studies in Germany at the time of data collection. So it was another way of developing human capability - particularly that of a female family member. This shows multidimensional implications of the wedding events for the overall development of any place. From all these accounts, I regarded four out of five wedding cases as a positive development for the concerned urban places, while the last case of getting married in a rural location was perceived as a neutral practice without impact on the urban development sector.

Religious practices

There were three respondents in total who practiced or assisted the practice of certain religious activities. In all three cases, the family members of these respondents were living in urban places in Pakistan. Though the carried out practices were mainly concerned with only a few commercial sectors, they gave an opportunity to the respondent himself in one case, and the parents of two other respondents in other cases, to perform religious activities assisted by expanded financial capability. The religious activities could also be regarded as a part of cultural activities. While the different opinions exist in academic circles about the cultural status of such activities, it is clear that performing religious activities is also a reflection or exhibition of other associated cultural rituals. As the remittances sent expanded the capability of the family members to perform other associated cultural activities, they can thus be considered as positive implications on the urban development.