Can Migratory Contacts and Remittances Contribute to Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Rwanda? Kim Caarls,* Sonja Fransen** and Ruerd Ruben*** ABSTRACT Migratory contacts may have a positive or a negative influence on local processes of rec- onciliation and reconstruction. However, their impact on individual attitudinal and behavioural attributes remains a largely underexposed topic. Migrants from post-conflict Rwanda maintain substantive contacts with their relatives through social networks and the resources that they send. Reconstruction and reconciliation programmes in post-con- flict Rwanda heavily rely on these migratory contacts. We explore the relationship between migration, reconstruction and reconciliation processes in post-conflict Rwanda. We analyse the importance of migratory contacts as a major constituent of social capi- tal, and discuss whether and how remittances can be used for mobilizing this social capi- tal. Adopting a micro-level perspective, we examine the effects of migratory contacts and remittances on cooperative behaviour and willingness for reconciliation amongst 558 households in Huye District, southern Rwanda. We find that migratory contacts enhance reconstructive behaviour and reconciliatory attitudes, whereas financial remittances result in reduced participation in these processes, indicating that there is a crowding-out effect due to remittance-dependency. Furthermore, we scrutinize the relationship between reconciliation and reconstruction, showing that inter-group contact is a key mediating variable. INTRODUCTION Migrants located in the Western world may play a large role in post-conflict societies. Several studies point to the positive role of these migrants in peace building and reconciliation efforts (Demmers, 2002; Mohamoud, 2006; Newland, 2007; Newland and Patrick, 2004). Newland and Patrick (2004) argue that migrants possess unique strengths since they are cultural experts, able to participate simultaneously in different cultural settings (i.e. the country of origin and the country of destination), and they are personally committed to their homeland countries. Other scholars point to the risks of large migrant communities as one of the main predictors of conflict recurrence (Cochrane, 2007; Collier and Hoeffler, 2002; Koser and Van Hear, 2003). 1 This negative influence occurs when migrants start acting as ‘‘long-distance * Maastricht University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Netherlands. ** Maastricht University, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands. *** Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for International Development Issues (CIDIN), The Netherlands. Ó 2012 The Authors International Migration Ó 2012 IOM International Migration Vol. 51 (S1) 2013 ISSN 0020-7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2012.00747.x