ABSTRACT

The Australian Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) has offered opportunities for Timorese citizens to engage in farm labour and hospitality jobs in rural Australia for periods of six months. Savings and remittance from this work offers a powerful and self-directing development tool that could improve living standards for participating households. In this paper, we argue that remittances invested in social relationships through ceremonies and customary exchange are beneficial for building enhanced social and financial capital in Timorese society. Cash contributions to support household consumption, purchase domestic appliances, education costs of siblings, house construction, ceremony costs and bridewealth (barlake) demands, are all important aspects of contemporary social life in Timor-Leste that are sustained by labour migration remittances. Social networking is thus crucial for enabling access to better resources and opportunities in Timor-Leste and remittances that focus on social relationship maintenance are therefore highly significant. Potentially they provide the ability for some return workers to afford higher bridewealth demands and in the process facilitate social mobility for seasonal workers while advancing a broader quality of life.

摘要

澳大利亚季节性工人计划（SWP）为东帝汶公民提供了在澳大利亚农村从事为期六个月的农业劳动和接待工作的机会。这项工作产生的储蓄和汇款提供了一个强大的、自我导向的发展工具，可以提高参与家庭的生活水平。在本文中，我们认为，通过仪式和习惯交换投资于社会关系的汇款有利于增强东帝汶社会的社会和金融资本。现金捐款用于支持家庭消费、购买家用电器、兄弟姐妹的教育费用、房屋建造、仪式费用和彩礼（barlake）需求，都是东帝汶当代社会生活的重要方面，而这些都是靠劳务移民汇款维持的。因此，社交网络对于在东帝汶获得更好的资源和机会至关重要，因此，专注于维持社会关系的汇款非常重要。它们可能使一些返乡工人能够满足更高的彩礼要求，并在此过程中促进季节性工人的社会流动性，同时提高更广泛的生活质量。