Migration and social protection are tightly linked issues in many ways.
Understanding the relationship and various linkages between migration and social
protection is crucial for delivering successful policies in either domain.
Nevertheless, the relationships and the effective policy response are still poorly
understood. For example, it is often assumed that receiving a public cash transfer
(social assistance / cash transfer) is the same thing as receiving a private cash
transfer (remittances). It implies that the two types of transfers are perfect
substitutes. However, it is far from clear whether they are indeed fungible and have
the same poverty or risk-reducing impact on households and individuals. Transfers
may be received by different family members (e.g. cash transfers are often paid to
women, whereas remittances are received by both men and women, depending on
who the migrant is), and the literature shows that which household member
receives a transfer potentially has strong impacts on household outcomes (Duflo
and Udry, 2004). Furthermore, social assistance and remittances may be spent
differently (e.g. social assistance on consumption and remittances on investment).