Based on comparative observation of the same group of foreign nationals in Germany before and after the global financial crisis, this paper sheds light on how much foreign nationals in Germany decided to remit before and during times of crises given that they had remitted. Thus, we distinguish between two different periods: the years before the global financial crisis (2000-2006) which we call tranquil times and the years after the global financial crisis (2008-2013) which we call years of global crisis. As well the comparative empirical perspective focuses on remittance behavior of two contrasting and important groups of foreign nationals in Germany: Turkish and former Yugoslavian citizens.
We employed the Tobit method using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data set which includes rich information on 10,198 foreign nationals for the years 2000-2006 and 8,619 foreign nationals for the years 2008-2013 in Germany, their return migration plans, demographic and social variables and the existence of personal transnational networks. In 2013 about 7 million foreigners were living in Germany. These micro data are gathered mainly through face-to-face interviews.
Results show that in years of global crisis: (1) personal remittance transfers from foreign nationals living in Germany decreased, (2) the socio-economic status of foreign nationals living in Germany played an increasing role for personal remittance, and (3) remigration plans became unimportant for the amount of remittances. However, there are interesting differences between the contrasting groups of foreign nationals in Germany. These results might challenge theoretical models on intra-family insurance and exchange explaining remittances.