— PhD Thesis —
In the global South, food remittances play a significant role in the food and nutrition security of many households, especially low-income families. However, in the last two decades, debates and research on migration, remittances, and development have primarily focused on cash transfers. Non-cash remittances such as food transfers have received limited attention. The bias of being solely attentive to cash remittances is alarming. It conceals an in-depth and comprehensive grasp of food remittances’ developmental and significant food security role in the global south. In addition, food remitting is a complex phenomenon that involves social networks, and emerging studies underscore how social media is transforming migrant networks. Yet, the connection between social media and migration outcomes such as remittances have been under-researched. This study investigated the emerging role of social media in the cross-border transfer of food remittances in the setting of Zimbabwean Migrants living in Cape Town, South Africa. Specifically, the research aim was to examine the role of social media in the food remitting characteristics such as the motivations, channels, nature, the part of the family/household and challenges encountered.
The research introduced an original investigative study focusing on the emerging role that social media and migrant networks play in facilitating cross-border food remitting. Notably, the study was based on a mixed research method, the intermix of quantitative and qualitative research techniques. This was done using questionnaire surveys on 100 participants and 10 indepth interviews. Therefore, the research procedures were conducted using the pragmatic approach by combining the positivistic and interpretivist methods. The social capital theory was utilised as the theoretical framework of the study. The social capital theory underscored the significance of migrants networking with their social connections on social media to facilitate the transfer of food remittances. The results uncovered that social media plays a vital role in the motivations, nature, channels, family/household links and addressing the challenges experienced in the food remitting process. The emerging trends, such as the use of digital transactions and mobile technology in the transfer of food remittances, were noteworthy in the study in the backdrop of the COVID-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions that disrupted informal channels.
In conclusion, in the transmission of food remittances, social media platforms played significant roles as communication facilitators, enabled content sharing, were resources for valuable information, assisted in accessing the channels to transmit food and operated as pathways for social networking. Therefore, social media networking facilitates the transfer of food remittances. The contribution of this study is primarily on the complex and indirect connection between social media, migrant networks and the channelling of cross-border food remittances. The study recommends that policymakers, researchers and migrant communities pay more attention to (1) cross-border food remittances and their impacts on households’ food and nutrition security. (2) Technological innovations such as social media, digital platforms and mobile technology that contribute significantly to channelling food remittances.
