A case of capital-rich underdevelopment: The paradoxical consequences of successful transnational entrepreneurship from Mirpur

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Abstract

This paper takes a close look at the impact of large-scale overseas emigration - and the resultant inflow of migrant remittances - on the local economy of Mirpur District in Pakistan. No other District in Pakistan has seen a higher proportion of its population engage in transnational migration than, and from nowhere else have a higher proportion of such migrants successfully established themselves in Britain. Yet despite the intensity of the trans-local linkages which have thereby been created, and the huge flow of remittance capital into a District which otherwise occupies a thoroughly marginalised position on the global periphery, in no way has this served to stimulate any kind of sustainable pattern of economic development. This article sets out to place these developments in their appropriate historical, political, environmental, local and global contexts in an effort to establish how and why it is that the Mirpuris otherwise sophisticated and successful entrepreneurial capabilities have not led to more successful and sustainable outcomes in their home base. There are good reasons why the lessons that can be learned in Mirpur could well be applicable elsewhere.