Beyond development: Sudanese remittances, diaspora differentiation, and refugee survival in times of war

This article examines Sudanese remittances as mechanisms of survival and social reproduction rather than engines of economic development. While remittances have often been discussed through developmental frameworks emphasizing investment, growth, and foreign exchange earnings, the Sudanese case demonstrates the limitations of such approaches, particularly in contexts of war, displacement, and state fragility. Drawing on qualitative interviews, scholarship on migration, refugeehood, transnationalism, and moral economies, the article argues that remittances primarily sustain households facing immediate needs such as food, rent, healthcare, education, and mobility. Particular attention is given to differentiation within the Sudanese diaspora. Long-established labor migrants in the Gulf differ substantially from more recent conflict-generated diasporas in Europe and North America in terms of legal status, labor market integration, income, and remittance capacity. These differences shape both the volume and destination of remittance flows. Since the outbreak of war in April 2023, remittances increasingly support not only relatives within Sudan, but also Sudanese refugees dispersed throughout Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, and Uganda as key destinations. The article argues that remittances have become central infrastructures of care connecting multiple sites of displacement and enabling the social reproduction of households fragmented by conflict. Understanding remittances through the lenses of survival, moral obligation, social reproduction, and diaspora differentiation provides a more accurate account of their contemporary role than narratives that portray them primarily as instruments of development.