Transnational migrants as consumer advocates for remittance reform

This extended case study uses a 'conscientious consumption' framework and a Polanyian interpretation of transnational advocacy to examine a migrant movement's efforts to establish pricing fairness and migrant-centred development in the remittance industry. We trace how, between 2008 and 2011, the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) utilized discursive and material strategies to leverage grassroots opposition to exploitative remittance companies, to 'certify' alternative providers, and to garner support from the Filipino government. TIGRA expanded the scope of transnational advocacy by hybridizing capitalistic and liberatory principles and targeting both market and state actors. Though initial leverage was achieved, TIGRA's activist allies were ultimately reluctant to engage in consumer-oriented practices. Moreover, given the ascendance of elite discourses regarding remittances and development, TIGRA had limited opportunities to generate alliances 'from above'. We argue that TIGRA's construction of migrants as the source and beneficiary of ethical market action inverted standard assumptions of conscientious consumption and, whilst representing an otherwise invisible group, advanced a strong pursuit of power under a usually weak reform paradigm. However, TIGRA's inability to maintain leadership with respect to its political targets calls into question whether reflexive, market-accommodating transnational movements can build sufficient power to alter neo-liberal regulatory discourses.