Individual Well-Being, Migration Remittances and the Common Good

Amartya Sen's capability approach sees individual agency as central for promoting development. However, not all kinds of individual agency are equally valuable. By examining the role of migration remittances, this paper argues that migration is a form of individual agency which promotes development in the short run, but which may undermine its structural conditions in the long run. What needs to be fostered is a kind of individual agency which helps construct these structural conditions, which the paper refers to as the 'common good'. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of seeing development beyond its consequences for individual human well-being.