African diasporas, development and the politics of context

Collective Transnational Power and its Limits: London-Based Nigerian Organisations, Development at ‘Home’ and the Importance of Local Agency and the ‘Internal Diaspora’

“…More fundamentally, there is growing recognition that the ability of the 'home' state to create an enabling environment for development in general is a critical prerequisite to meaningful diasporic contribution (de Haas 2010;de Haas and Vezzoli 2010;Lampert 2010;Skeldon 2008). Indeed, Davies (2012) argues that the predominance of often ineffective neo-patrimonial states in sub-Saharan Africa, as exemplified by Nigeria, makes it much more difficult for international diasporas from the region to support development at 'home'.…”

Globalising knowledge networks: Universities, diaspora strategies, and academic intermediaries

“…They are not simply migrants who are lost to their home country (despite ongoing concerns around 'brain drain'), rather they are being asked to act as academic intermediaries for new knowledge configurations. The causes and consequences of this shift in academic life cannot be read off the existing literatures on diaspora strategies which increasingly takes for granted the claim that diaspora strategies are premised on 'neoliberal logics' (Davies, 2012;Mohan, 2008;Mullings, 2011;Pellerin and Mullings, 2013). Universities are not organisations that are becoming 'little fingers of the state' (to use a familiar phrase from a different context), and using the diaspora to help governments and international institutions deliver on wider economic development strategies.…”

Diaspora mobilization and the politics of loyalty in the time of Ebola: evidence from the Sierra Leonean diaspora in the UK

“…The role of diasporas as effective transnational actors in their countries of origin has been a burgeoning area of interest for both academics and policymakers for several years (AFFORD 2004;COMPAS 2004;Davies 2012;Ionescu 2006;Lampert 2012;Mercer et al 2008;Skeldon 2008;Terrazas 2010;Zack-Williams and Mohan 2002). Proponents of incorporating diasporas more fully into development point to the importance of diasporic remittances for home country economies (AFFORD 2004).…”

“…The actions of the home-country state, and nation-state politics in general, create conflict and dissension in diasporic mobilizations, not least because political repression and state dysfunction are often the cause of emigration in the first place. This is particularly true of sub-Saharan Africa, where colonial rule, decolonization and the impacts of structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s have strongly framed state-society relations (Davies 2013;Mercer et al 2009;Mohan 2006Mohan , 2008. This legacy, along with continued obligations to extended family and the home town, has resulted in an ambivalent and conflictive attitude towards the home country government, and a proliferation of various sub-national and kin-based identifications, which Mohan (2006) described as a form of 'embedded cosmopolitanism'.…”