International Organizations

migrants. Diaz-Briquets and Perez- Lopez (1997, p. 411) also confirmed that “remittances, or the funds that transnational migrants send to their home countries, have become a major factor in international financial flows and in the economic well-being of many countries.”

Adding to this, Shera and Meyer (2013, p. 4) corroborated the above suggestion by saying that “This flow of money across borders has profound social and economic impacts on various aspects of the home countries. In particular, remittances promote access to financial services for the sender and the recipient, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion.”

Interpretation of their ideas can be stronger, as Shera and Meyer (2013, p. 9) added,

“Migrant transfers in the form of remittances can ease the immediate budget constraints of families by bolstering crucial spending needs on food, health care, and schooling expenses for their children.”

Adams and Page (2005 p. 1660) analyzed the results of international remittances of migrants and their impact on developing countries, finding that there was a strong statistically significant effect on reducing poverty. “On average of 10% increase in the share of international migrants in a country’s population will lead to a 2.1% decline in the share of people living on less than $1.00 per person per day.”

Years later Acosta, Calderon, Fajnzylber and Lopez (2008, p.110) reinforce the idea, concluding that “migration and remittances have statistically significant poverty-reducing effects that appear to operate mainly through increases in per capita income of remittances-receiving countries.”

Therefore, it is a tangible observation made by OxResearch Daily Brief Service (2017, para. 9 &10) in its Latin America: Brain drain negates remittances when talking about the Latin American and Caribbean countries LAC, stating that:

Depending on the country, family remittances offer a broad range of benefits for LAC households and economies: They provide a crucial 'extra' income that helps poor families meet basic needs, including food, housing, education and healthcare. Some households also use part of this income for savings, investments and small business ventures.

2.5 International Organizations

International organizations provide support through economic cooperation work with developing countries such as Nicaragua. Strong and very well-defined motives are stated by

‧

the international institutions. The World Bank (2012) wrote that it “lends money to middle-income countries at interest rates lower than the rates on loans from commercial banks. In addition, the Bank lends money at no interest to the poorest developing countries, those that often cannot find other sources of loans.” In addition, the organization states the fields that received the support of this lends money as follows:

• Supply safe drinking water

• Build schools and train teachers

• Increase agricultural productivity

• Manage forests and other natural resources

• Build and maintain roads, railways, and ports

• Extend telecommunications networks

• Generate and distribute energy

• Expand health care

• Modernize

Works in particular directed projects show the initiative of the World Bank to contribute to the progress of developing countries. As one of the pillars for development of any nation, education has positioned itself as an essential and crucial measurement by adding to a developing nation's growth. On their work Collins and Rhoads (2010, p. 182) expressed:

In time, we came to center our concern about the relationship between the Bank and universities in the developing world on issues best described as neocolonial and neoliberal, the former conveying new forms of global hegemony advanced by powerful nations and their institutions, and the latter representing an economic ideology by which weaker nations may be brought into greater alignment with global trade initiatives.

Equally, projects around the world have been selected to create an ideal atmosphere for the wellbeing of citizens. The mentality of the projects aims to minimize those factors, in addition to poverty and economic limitations that nurture a lower quality of life.

Raffo, Bliss, Shotten, Sleet and Blanchard (2013) used the road safety project as an example of this mentality as implemented by Argentina in cooperation with the World Bank in promoting a healthier life conditions. At the same time, Stern, Dethier and Rogers said:

“Country development aims to promote higher living standards for all, with an emphasis on

‧

improved health, education, employment, and people’s ability to participate in the economy and society” (as cited in Raffo, Bliss, Shotten, Sleet and Blanchard 2013, p. 20-21).

On its website of the 35 country members, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2018c) states that it “uses its wealth of information on a broad range of topics to help governments foster prosperity and fight poverty through economic growth and financial stability. We help ensure the environmental implications of economic and social development are taken into account.” In addition, the OECD's work has included migration issues in cooperation with the Organization of the America States, Economic Organization for Cooperation and Development (2017), as revealed in its report International Migration in The Americas saying:

Economic migration in the LAC region, driven by labor needs in regional labor markets which transcend national borders, is not a complete one without a mention of what might be called “flight migration”, from conflict zones, natural catastrophes or conditions of economic collapse or underdevelopment. (Part I, p. 27).

Under the perspective of the international organization, working in favor of battling a range of difficulties present in developing countries such as poverty or international debt (the former being a reason for people to migrate), as well as, promoting the sustainable development of the welfare of citizens is the core of efforts prompting the work of international assistance.

Therefore, for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2018):

Financial assistance has evolved from helping countries deal with short-term trade fluctuations to supporting adjustment and addressing a wide range of balance of payments problems resulting from terms of trade shocks, natural disasters, post-conflict situations, broad economic transition, poverty reduction and economic development, sovereign debt restructuring, and confidence-driven banking and currency crises.

In addition, the United Nations (2014) on its report of the intergovernmental committee explained:

ODA continues to provide essential financial and technical cooperation to many developing countries, including least developed countries and many African countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States, and countries affected

‧

by conflict. In most countries with government spending of less than PPP$ 500 per person per year, ODA accounts for an average of more than two thirds of international resource flows (p, 10).

Therefore, efforts and works directed at developing countries is primarily for the development of the countries which, after the necessary negotiation, establish an agreement for work aimed to boost developing country economies in the framework of all settled parameters for the benefit of the population. In its report, the Wall Street Journal (August 30, 2010, para.

1,2) “IMF Expands Loan Offering to Developing Countries” noted that the IMF “would broaden the kinds of loans it offers to encourage a large swath of developing countries to get financial help before they are engulfed in crisis. Under a new "precautionary credit line,"

countries whose policies it generally endorses.”

Currently some critics and changes--as expected--have been observed in the interaction between international organizations and the countries they assist. The boards of the institutions accepted disagreements uncovered with emerging states concerning the processes and applications of the international institutions' objectives. The related proposal of a strong position of new states is made by Qu and Walter who said “China denounced this surveillance framework as discriminatory because, in practice, it left developed countries free from IMF surveillance while making developing countries its primary target” (as cited in Zangl, Heußner, Kruck and Lanzendörfer, 2016, p. 185).

Therefore, the criticism about international assistance is necessary. In the same rhetoric as a supporting role of the work of Qu’s and Walter’s, Zangl et al. (2016, p. 185) observed

“China demanded IMF surveillance practices should target not only developing countries, but also developed countries, including the US and the EU. China criticized the IMF’s surveillance of its member states’ obligation to guarantee domestic financial stability.”

The method of the delivered assistance is also a key point receiving arguments among analysts. The probability of the assurance for a complete success of the methodology of international assistance is not one hundred percent. However, the benefits of economic improvements are evident. Iimi and Ojima (2008) suggested the concessional attachment to ODA loans can augment empirically the recipient economic growth. Developing countries can enter a long-term relation in order to magnify its economy regardless external factors as long as the scope of the loans follows the desired goals.

Other players might interfere or facilitate the attachment of developing countries to international monetary assistance organizations. Aftermath of negative impact in developing

‧

countries tip the scale in favor of seeking international assistance. Swamy (2001) analyzed the paper of multinational corporation in developing countries where MNCs transfer highly cost technologies out of proper financial domestic support of developing countries which in turns, creates financial lurch and the force to turn to funding agencies as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group for loans carrying strings attached conditions in detriment of the developing countries.

Perceptions of unwilling turns to international monetary groups in the case of developing countries constitutes a major criticism of those financing organizations because the acuity of an evident boundary between huge capital and international organizations is missed or invisible.

Nevertheless, the remunerations of funds in the welfare of people of developing countries is not only isolated for other international actors as it is for the MNCs. Mukherjee (2008) exposed those criticisms which have long suggested the failure of the IMF and the World Bank and the consideration of the cancelation of such international assistance resources. But, at the same time, he affirmed “aid and loans from the IMF and the World Bank have a positive effect on economic development in developing countries that are democracies, but have a negligible or sometimes negative effect on development in developing nations that are autocratic”

(Mukherjee, 2008, p. 123).

The weaknesses of Official Development Assistance (ODA) with a focus on the donor side were quantified for Birdsall and Kharas (2010). Through a detailed work, they constructed and implemented the idea of measuring the quality of the ODA with respect to the work of the 23 countries that are members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The initiative of this investigation is based on the enquiries focused on the scope of the aid and its objectives to improve the quality of life of the people. It also looked at uncertainties about the amount of spending that reaches the beneficiary countries and the amount that of spending that is retained in the donor country, the costs faced by those countries receiving help, the information disclosed (and all details) by the members of the DAC, and mainly if the countries with its bilateral or multilateral agencies show improvement over time. For the authors, the failure of aid projects is due to the poor performance either of both the donor and the executing country or only one of these. In the study, 30 indicators were grouped into four broad categories to focus on the effectiveness of aid or the quality of aid as attributes of the assistance for good development of the quality of life of the people. This study attempted to change the generalized perspective about the quality of aid that has captured the attention of most of the actors over time, namely, that aid depends on quantity and not quality. With the results obtained, it was

‧

possible to give a ranking to all the members of the DAC, reaffirming the necessity to improve the methods in which the help is provided. For this reason, the study also included a survey in order to obtain recommendations from donors’ responses to provide feedback and recommendations to improve future assistance processes.

Despite criticism about the ODA processes and the quality of its assessment, Lanati and Thiele (2017) investigated the impact of foreign aid on migration. According their study, a direct connection between these two variables does not exist because it is still unexplored. The effects of foreign aid on migration have therefore not yet been determined, which opens the door to further study of the aid-migration link.

The authors expressed the expectations created on migration by ODA disbursement--under the foreign aid term--from a single pattern of study.

The data used for their research corresponded to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which proved a negative relation between the variables.

This finding is congruent to the initial proposed indication of this research, aid should raises wealth levels among the people being influenced by aid, while at the same time, other possible determinants of migration (education, poverty) are minimized and, as a result, aid reduces emigration.