WP 3: Mobilising diasporas: A governmentality analysis of the case of Mexico

Abstract

The recent debate about the ‘diffusion of authority’ in international governance relates to the ways in which the increasing involvement of non-state actors has shifted authority in the international system towards new sites and actors. Thereby, one actor that supposedly plays an increasingly important role in international affairs has so far not received much attention in this literature: diasporas or migrant groups. In the diaspora literature, on the other hand, not much has been written about the broader implications of such diaspora policies in terms of changing forms of governance and ‘authority’ in the international system. This paper addresses this blindspot between the IR literature on non-state actors and governance and the literature on diasporas, in order to situate the phenomenon of increasing diaspora activities in the debate on changing forms of international governance. Using a Foucauldian governmentality analysis to examine the broader implications of changing forms of governing diasporas in the Mexico-US context, this paper situates the current debate around the increasing involvement of diaspora and other non-state actors within the broader shift towards neo-liberal forms of governing. The main argument is that the construction of diasporas as agents and the increasing involvement of the diaspora, as illustrated in the case of Mexico, is an expression of broader transformations under way towards neo-liberal governmentality. This shift towards neo-liberal governmentality involves the responsibilisation and disciplining of civil society actors, such as the diaspora, while at the same time opening space for new forms of resistance and empowerment. This, it is argued, leads to the transformation of state-diaspora and more broadly state-civil society relations and a redrawing of public-private boundaries.