Oxford University and COMPASS Present: When USAID Freezes, Who Pays? The Dangerous Myth of Remittances in Global Crises

For decades, remittances—money sent home by migrants—have been hailed as a lifeline for families and communities in times of crisis. Institutions like the World Bank have championed remittances as a hidden force in economic growth and crisis recovery. They’ve framed them as “dollars wrapped with love,” a private solution to public problems, allowing governments to shrink social safety nets and scale back humanitarian aid. Or end it all together as we are seeing through President Trump’s USAID shutdown, forcing migrants to carry the burden of international development.

This event takes a hard look at the myth of remittance-driven resilience. What happens when governments rely on their diaspora to fund disaster recovery? Why are international donors, including USAID, scaling back traditional aid while promoting financial products to “unlock” more remittance flows? And as climate disasters intensify, are we witnessing the privatization of humanitarianism—where survival depends on whether you have family abroad?

Dr. Yvonne Su, Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies and Assistant Professor at York University, explores these questions in her book project, “The Myth of Remittances,” which takes a unique focus on the human and household-level experiences of remittances during crisis recovery, offering a critical counter-narrative to the global optimism surrounding remittances.

Bio:

Dr. Yvonne Su is the Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University. An interdisciplinary scholar on transnational issues, her expertise spans forced migration, queer migration, climate change adaptation, migrant remittances and climate (im)mobilities. Her research adopts a policy-oriented and community-based approach, undertaking regionally contextualised social science research across the Global South, focusing on Latin America and the ASEAN region. Dr. Su has spent over a decade examining the socio-ecological impacts of climate change, focusing on how social inequalities shape communities’ adaptive capacities and disaster responses.

Her research has been cited by international organizations like the IPCC, UNHCR and IOM. Su has garnered over $7.5 million in research funding, including funding from NFRF and SSHRC. She takes an interdisciplinary, participatory and decolonial approach to scholarship that is focused on developing strong partnerships with local communities, NGOs, and policymakers. She holds a PhD in Political Science and International Development from the University of Guelph and an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford.