Hometown Associations and Development: A Look at Ownership, Sustainability, Correspondence and Replicability.” Report prepared for the Inter-American Dialogue

Hometown associations (HTAs), organizations of immigrants who raise funds for the betterment of their places of origin, are growing in importance for communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. HTAs illustrate the evolving relationship between development and migration. One key aspect of this relationship is the impact on equity, an important component of deve lopment philosophy. These migrant associations seek to promote social change, particularly for the benefit of vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly. They do this by financially supporting critical sectors, such as health and education, in their communities of origin. In this way, the migrant members of HTAs strengthen their relationship to the development of their country of origin. In considering the relationship between HTA donations and development, it is important to keep four premises in mind. First, these financial flows are significant in volume and have broad economic effects. Second, although remittances to families and donations to communities are channeled primarily to the poor, these resources alone do not constitute a solution to the structural constraints of poverty, and they often fail to create financial security for households or sustainable development in a community. 1 Manuel Orozco is program coordinator of the remittances and development program and