All those cases which apparently appeared pure altruistic in nature but did not qualify as per the established criterion were categorized under tempered altruism or enlightened self-interest as some level of self-interest of the respondents were also emerged as the driven force behind the performed practices. Likewise, the practices which apparently appeared as in the domain of pure self-interest, but also revealed some element of an altruistic nature for
147 Table 9.10: Practices and remittances by category under pure altruism
Specific practice Category A Category B Total
Freq. Remit.
(Euro) Freq. Remit.
(Euro) Freq. Remit.
(Euro) Remitting for family living needs 3 20,750 5 44,515 8 68,012
Remitting for higher order family needs 2 2,747 4 6
Investing in social capital 1 2 3
Remitting for gifts - - 2 2
Assisting sister’s marriage - - 1 1
Assisting in a running business - - 1 5,276 1 5,276
Sending/carrying gifts 7 6,147 8 13,259 15 19,406
Total (without gifts) 6 23,497 15 49,791 21 73,288
Source: Own construct
performing them were also kept in that group. So mainly, these were the practices where altruism and self-interest of the respondents coexisted for a same practice. For a few performed practices identified under tempered altruism or enlightened self-interest, return migration intentions of the respondents also played a part.
Going along with the same analogy as in previous sub-section, the priority to assign a motivation for a carried out practice was kept case specific instead of spontaneous assignment based on the nature of a certain practice. Apparently, remitting for meeting general consumption needs of the family, remitting for the Hajj performance of the parents and sending/carrying gifts to the family members appeared as altruistic in nature. But the detailed analysis of every respondent’s case revealed that for all those performed practices, there were also some vested interests of the practicing respondents. Mainly, the same respondents who initially disclosed that they were remitting to take care of family later revealed that those remittances were also intended to repay loans or financial assistance from the family members, mainly the parents. For example, a respondent initially described the following:
“I used to support my family every month, even from the first day of the time since I am here (Germany) because my parents are dependent on me” (Interview excerpt, respondent’s id: 230, January 09, 2014).
But later, the same respondent revealed that he constructed a house in Pakistan during that period and the land for that house construction was given to him by his father. He did not pay anything to his father in lieu of the cost of the land and in that way, took a financial benefit from his father. With this reciprocity in consideration, his remittances could also be viewed as a way of paying his parents back. Therefore according to the established criterion, this practice was identified as performed under tempered altruism.
While another respondent did not claim that he remitted any money to his family for altruistic reasons, he later disclosed an instance of remitting money to meet the expenditures of the Hajj performance of his parents and replied as follows:
“There was an incidence that / I brought seven or eight thousand Euro with me …..
after one year, I returned approximately one and half or two thousand Euro to my family for Hajj performance of my mother and other than that I did not return [money]” (Interview excerpt, respondent’s id: 34, January 12, 2014).
So the statement made by the respondent clearly shows that he realized that he actually returned the money to his parents which he took from them to meet his study expenditures in Germany. Evidently, it was a case of a practice performed under tempered altruism.
Chapter 9 Translocal Spatial Practices of Pakistani Immigrants (2008-12)
148 Interestingly, it also reflects that even after being five years in Germany at the time of data collection, he still owed money to his parents. Also, there were cases, where the intention of getting married was also mixed with the altruistic reasons as those remittances were also meant to meet the expenditures of their marriages. Another respondent performed a religious ritual for which he did not remit anything explicitly instead the remittances sent in lump sum by him were also used for that purpose as well.
On the other side, the practices of investing in family houses, businesses or in banks seemingly appeared as performed under pure self-interest as these were investments in physical and financial capital. But it was revealed that some investment practices were being performed under a mix of altruistic and self-interest reasons. Investing in family houses, as per the literature comes under self-interest as a way to secure the inheritance, but for many cases, it overlaps with the altruistic reasons. As this was the case in this study as well, that some of the respondents who performed this practice, disclosed that they did that for improving the living conditions of their family members and they did not have own interest in doing that. But, securing the inheritance generally remains a vested interest in doing that. A respondent replied as follows:
“We do already have a house. For that, it was required to have plaster (cement coating) for which I assisted them (family) during those years. ….. I had no interest in that. ….. [It was] for family” (Interview excerpt, respondent’s id: 66, February 06, 2014).
Another respondent shared almost a similar incident as follows:
“My parents are no more alive, my brothers are living there (family house) now.
With that connection, some construction work was required there so I offered some help which was not that much. ….. There was not any of my personal [interest]”
(Interview excerpt, respondent’s id: 173, January 17, 2014).
Further, these family houses were the places where respondents were staying during their visits to Pakistan. So another interest of having a reasonable place to stay during the return visits was also playing a role in improving the living conditions of the family houses. Though the above mentioned statements show that respondents were performing these practices with altruistic reasons but due to the presence of other vested interests, these practices were identified to be tempered altruistic in nature.
There was another respondent who wanted to migrate back during that time and performing the same practice was also a sort of arrangement for a reasonable place to live there. A respondent assisted his brother in the construction of his house to anticipate the reciprocity he would later require when he purchased a residential land parcel later (out of the study period). The same brother, of course, financially assisted the respondent. A respondent assisted his brother to establish a new business, on the basis of which he was able to establish his own business here in Germany during the study period. Also, he had some intention of returning back to Pakistan in the future, so establishing a business in Pakistan was a part of his long-term strategy to have a source of livelihood in future. He replied as follows:
“….. I supported my brother to establish a private side business. ….. For establishing a new business. ….. The main intention was to improve the economic situation of my family in Pakistan. ….. To support my family. ….. I can say that if this business would establish well then I could also play my own role in it or if I would return to Pakistan, then I would take care of it. ….. For [looking after] my interests too” (Interview excerpt, respondent’s id: 228, February 05, 2014, see Appendix 11c for complete interview transcript).
149 Again, the mixed element of altruism and self-interest prompted me to put it as tempered altruistic or self-enlightened practice.
Another respondent accumulated financial capital in bank account partly for his own savings and partly for looking after the family emergency needs. Another respondent invested in a saving scheme in Pakistan, which was in his father’s name. But same respondent revealed that he had taken financial assistance twice from his father, once when he arrived in Germany to study and later when he established his own business in Germany.
In between, the same respondent also wanted to migrate back to Pakistan as well and it was also a way to transfer back his savings from Germany to Pakistan. So all these mentioned cases warranted the placing of these specific practices to be considered as performed under tempered altruism or enlightened self-interest.
It has been found that around one fifth of all the remittances were being sent for performing practices under tempered altruism or enlightened self-interest by the respondents. Other than sending or carrying gifts to Pakistan, the majority of practices with this motivation was to repay loans or financial assistance. One category B and two category A respondents were repaying for the money which they took for meeting their study expenditures in Germany, one category A respondent was repaying for the financial assistance taken for establishing his business in Germany and another category A respondent was doing the same practice to repay the loan taken to finance the construction of a house and to get married. So mainly, this practice was carried out by category A respondents. For this reason, in addition to having a smaller average income, category A respondents were unable to perform many practices through remittances. Category A respondents were indebted and bound by informal loan contract conditions (four out of ten category A respondents) to repay the loans or financial assistance. There was even one category A respondent who was restricted with less income due to loan conditions during the study period. In this case, however, he had taken out the loan from his friends in Germany. Also, one third of all the gifts in terms of their value were sent or carried to Pakistan under this motive.
Category wise, category B respondents remitted 1.5 times more than the category A respondents for performing practices under tempered altruism or enlightened self-interest.
If we look at the percentages within every category, category A respondents remitted 22.8
% of all the remittances sent by them, while the figure of 18.7 % has been revealed for category B respondents under tempered altruism. This shows that category A respondents have slightly more of a tendency to remit under the motive of enlightened self-interest. If we look at the frequency of the practices performed, each category A practicing respondent remitted 334 Euro annually per practice under tempered altruism while every category B practicing respondent, on average, remitted 627 Euro per practice a year for the same reason. So in terms of money invested in each practice, category B practicing respondents, on average, were remitting more for each carried out practice (Table 9.11).