Diasporas as Partners for Development: Indirect (Pragmatic) vs. Direct (Administrative) Approaches to Diaspora Engagement

Abstract

The chapter aims to develop an indirect or pragmatic approach to facilitate this virtuous cycle of diaspora-home country interactions. This approach favors “high-resolution” diaspora policies — ones that cultivate the project-specific relationships and commitments of movers and shakers (both in the diaspora and in homeland institutions) that might make a significant difference and are counted in tens and hundreds, not thousands or tens of thousands. This novel indirect approach is contrasts conventional direct, or administrative, approaches. The indirect approach is currently in its infancy, which is why we had to rely on our personal policy experience perhaps more than is usual in the context of academic literature.