‘More Than Money’: Unpacking the Moral Economies of Remittances Through the Online Advertising of Western Union

That migrant remittances are, or should be, ‘more than money’ is a statement on which different stakeholders, with different interests, would probably agree. While migrants often strive to articulate care and emotional involvement through them, and scholars emphasize the socio‑cultural meanings and implications of these money transfers, the remittance industry also builds on a more‑than‑money visual repertoire. This has been comparatively neglected, and yet is potentially revealing. Based on a content analysis of the YouTube archive of Western Union, we illustrate how ethnic advertising constructs the non‑monetary dimension of remittances by associating the idea of ‘more’ with celebrative and alluring representations of migrants, of their life circumstances, and of money itself. Besides making for an original and counter‑hegemonic aesthetic of migration, if only for commercial purposes, this representation illuminates the tension and ambiguities underlying the view of remittances as a special kind of money. It also reveals the shortcomings of an ‘additional logic’ in shaping the hopes, achievements, and cross‑border obligations of transnational migrants. More fundamentally, the more‑than‑money argument unveils remittances as a unique field of negotiation between contrasting analytical, affective, and instrumental stances about migration.