How do people manage money on highly precarious and long journeys across countries and continents when access to government-regulated bank accounts, online profiles, and loans often isn’t possible?
We know that migrants and refugees who can’t use regularised forms of travel often must pay large sums of money to reach their destinations. But little research has looked at how they manage this and what their “financial journeys” look like.
In this episode, Amanda Paz Alencar speaks with Kimberly Wilson about The Journeys Project, a multi-year, multi-country qualitative study that documented the financial lives of refugees around the world. Their extensive qualitative work details different cultures and norms of managing money on inter-continental journeys. They also documented how people prepare for managing financially along the way.
The project collected hundreds of stories, reports, financial biographies, maps, and even artwork, all which are available on their website. (which you can find in the shownotes)
Kimberly Wilson is a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, in the United States.
Here’s their conversation….
Show notes:
The work that Kim talks about in this episode is related to “The Journeys Project”: www.JourneysProject.org
One of her recent publications:
Backyard Bankers: Immigrants, Savings Clubs, And the American Dream (Practical Action Press); Finance in Displacement: Joint Lessons Report (IRC); Forced Displacement and the Humanitarian Development Nexus (EBA, with Karen Jacobsen)
Dr. Wilson would like to acknowledge Dr. Roxani Krystalli, Dr. Julie Zollmann, Dr. Swati Dhawan, Annie Bright, Maria Nagel for their work on the Project.
She would also like to thank the funders of the Journeys Project: Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, GiZ/BMZ, International Rescue Committee, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and The Gates Foundation.