International institutions and the making of remittances: gendered inclusions and exclusions

This dissertation examines creation of narrative and policy prescription about remittances in international institutions, with a focus on the World Bank. By focusing on the role that gender has played in knowledge creation about remittances, the fate of gender mainstreaming at the World Bank is clarified. The dissertation begins with an analysis of the history of remittances in international institutions, asking how levels of interest in remittances, as well as understandings of migrants and gender, have changed over time. This is followed by a mixed-methods examination of World Bank publications to understand how attention to country and gender are distributed in the remittances literature. Finally, a close study of the World Bank’s migration and remittances blog, People Move, allows for a detailed understanding of the intellectual networks and priorities of the World Bank. Ultimately these approaches together lead to the conclusion that gender mainstreaming at the World Bank has been largely successful in placing questions about gender on the agenda of discussions of remittances, though the generation of gendered answers remains a work in progress.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Janna H. Ferguso