Informal cross-border trade and remittances: Evidence from Democratic Republic of The Congo

Bula Clement Basuayi

It has been argued that remittance plays a positive role in alleviation of poverty and investment of the country of origin of migrants. However, such remittances are deduced from wage labor. Yet, less is known about remittance from informal employment such informal cross-border trade in which wage is uncertain. Indeed,informal cross-border trade serves as mode of adaptation and insertion for migrants in host country and it consequently provides migrants with the "non-labor wage". The main question is to determine the variation in remittance across countries of destination among wage-salary and self-employed migrants. Using the data set of migrants from Democratic Republic of The Congo involved in cross-border trade, this paper intends to define the variation in remittance across countries of destination such as Rwanda and Burundi, among wage-salary migrants than among self-employed migrants by using log amount annual remittance. Keywords: migrant, remittance, informal cross-border trade, self-employment and adaptation