A behavioural approach to remittances analysis

This paper approaches the migrant’s motivation to remit from a new, behavioural perspective. We apply the well-established Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) using a structural equation model for the first time for this specific research question. Our micro-dataset stems from a 2009/10 survey, covering Albanian migrants from Kosovo living in Germany as well as their home-country households. More than 90% of Kosovar migrants living in Germany remit. However, little is known about their underlying motivations. Our analytical results show that the migrant’s attitude and norms are decisive for the remitting behaviour. The common socio-economic approach lacks explanatory power backed by theory.