Remittances in a Continuum of Space and Place

Sarah Lynn Lopez’s The Remittance Landscape: Spaces of Migration in Rural Mexico and Urban USA deftly carves out a largely unexplored space in the migration conversation—one that encompasses the duality of migration and the effects of this demographic flow on rural and urban physical spaces to track social change. These shifts that result from migration are part of what Lopez terms the “remittance landscape.” The remittance landscape serves as a nuanced canvas on which the dynamics of migration are displayed through the development of built environment supported by remittances from migrants. The built environment encompasses all human-made spaces and structures in which daily life takes place, which includes homes, schools, parks, workplaces, plazas, and community systems at large. The results of migration also have intangible characteristics that impact space—transforming the idea of identifying where one’s “home” is, and the significance of societal norms and cultural traditions that play out in public and private spaces.