Migrants as agents of development: Diaspora engagement discourse and practice in Europe

Abstract

This article analyses how European governments and civil society actors engage diasporas in Europe as agents for the development of their countries of origin. Through a critical examination of diaspora engagement discourse and practice in various European countries, we identify three implicit understandings. First, development is conceived of as the planned activities of Western professional development actors; second, diasporas are seen as actual communities rooted in a national ‘home’ and sharing a group identity; and third, migration is regarded as binary mobility. We argue that these interpretations are informed by notions of ethnic or national rootedness in given places and that they lead to further assumptions about why, and in pursuit of what goals, diasporas engage. We conclude that such essentialized understandings limit the potential of diaspora engagement as a means of innovating the development industry by broadening understandings of what development entails and how it can be done.

Translocal Activities of Local Governments and Migrant Organizations

“…To start with, policymakers have tended to consider migrants and their organizations mainly as a "development tool", ignoring other, perhaps more important, roles. Moreover, from this perspective, development is often narrowed down to a rather output-oriented and normative view focused on, for example, the size of collective investments or the number of schools built, rather than on processes of social transformation (see also Sinatti and Horst 2014 ). Finally, one might question the motives underlying this framework.…”

“…In this framework, migrant organizations are reduced to a tool for development-one that policymakers are increasingly encouraged to use. The overall picture, according to this view on development, is that the transnational activities of migrant organizations remain relatively small in scale and focused mainly on infrastructural projects in the social sectors (e.g., construction of a health post or school or the improvement of a village square) (Sinatti and Horst 2014 ;Portes et al 2007 ;Nijenhuis and Zoomers 2015 ). Much of the academic literature takes a broader perspective, analysing the role of migrant organizations while also paying attention to other dimensions of development (e.g., political and social).…”

The Role of the Diaspora in the Civil Society Development of Somalia/Somaliland: Reflections on the Finland-based Somali Diaspora

“…Recently, the idea of strengthening civil society as a path to sustainable democratic development has coincided with the discussion of migrants being potential agents of development in their countries of origin; this is a discourse articulated both in academia and in international and regional organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union and the African Union. The term 'diaspora', referring to people living outside of their country of origin, has become a buzzword in these instances (Horst et al 2010;Turner/Kleist 2013;Sinatti/Horst 2014). Often, the concrete funding schemes supporting the diaspora's role in development work are framed around the civil society sphere, as is the case with the collaboration between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) and the Somali diaspora.…”

Returning home: An evaluation of Hungarian return migration

“…In our research, re-migrants are persons older than 15 years old, who returned to their country of birth after having been international migrants in another country (Kovács, Z. et al 2012;Hegedűs, G. and Lados, G. 2015). Theories of return migration focus generally less on the individuals' personality such as their identity and identity changes (Sinatti, G. and Horst, C. 2015). Nevertheless, identity and identity changes can significantly influence the individual's future migration decisions (Berry, J.W.…”

“…A reason for such hardship is that remigration policies define the group of returnees in a fairly general way. But some researchers point out individual factors determining the decision of return (Van Houte, M. and Davids, T. 2008;Sinatti, G. and Horst, C. 2015), including the effects of different territorial scales (Boros, L. and Pál, V. 2016).…”