Through looking at remittances from the perspective of two migrant sending communities in northwestern Cambodia, Veng Seang Hai’s research has uncovered the involvement of a multiplicity of agents in conditioning and directing the flow of remittances. His holistic approach instigates to critically look at the impact of those remittances. Going beyond the tangible impacts, he has revealed the paradoxical patterns of upward and downward social mobility among remittance-receiving households. Besides being valuable for future research on labor migration, the findings of this study can serve as a basis to rethink family poverty reduction and national development strategies not only in the context of Cambodia, but also any other developing country facing an outflow of migrant workers.

1. Pa-Oh (Asian People) ? Burma. 2. Burma ? Social life and customs.