Diaspora Engagement Policies Research Articles

STRATEGY "UZBEKISTAN - 2030": WAYS TO SUPPORT COMPATRIOTS LIVING ABROAD

This article examines the implications and strategies outlined in Uzbekistan's "Strategy-2030" for engaging with its diaspora. The comprehensive analysis covers the diverse contributions of the diaspora in economic, social, human, and cultural sectors, aligning with key principles identified in diaspora engagement policies. The study applauds the multifaceted approach of the strategy and offers recommendations for institutionalizing diaspora participation, unifying definitions, and establishing discussion platforms to foster practical realization of rights and obligations. The "Strategy-2030" is seen as a pivotal step, creating a foundation for long-term cooperation and mutual understanding between Uzbekistan and its compatriots abroad.

Administering Diaspora: Complexity and Innovation in the Emigrant Policies of Latin America and the Caribbean – A Learning Opportunity for the Global North?

Diaspora engagement policies are an area of migration policy which tends to be neglected in countries of the Global North. Specifically, the configuration of public administration agencies behind diaspora policies has been treated superficially in comparative analyses. Epistemic communities have created a narrative that diaspora policies are mostly a form of window dressing. Using original data, this article compares the configurations of agencies that design and implement diaspora policies across 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, a particularly innovative region in this policy area. It argues that the Global North misses a learning opportunity in overlooking their complexity.

Türkiye’nin Diaspora Politikası: 2010’dan Bu Yana Bakış Açısında Değişim

This paper focuses on the diaspora engagement policy of Türkiye, which affects the lives of more than 6.5 million Turkish citizens and their descendants. The main research question raised in this
 paper is “What has changed in the Turkish diaspora engagement policy since 2010 with the establishment of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB)?” Following
 an analysis of the diaspora engagement policy of Türkiye in the socio-economic, political-legal and socio-cultural spheres, it is concluded that since 2010, in order to maintain a connection
 with the transnational diaspora, long-distance nationalism has emerged as a prominent factor. The novelty of the policy lies in its redefinition of the target groups, the features of the diaspora,
 and the policy goals, actors, tools and stakeholders. Türkiye has begun to target the reintegration of post-migrant generations with Türkiye in the socio-cultural sphere through new policy
 tools, and the long-distance nationalist perspective of its diaspora engagement policy has thus led to the transformation of Türkiye into a “transnational nation-state”.

Re‐spatialising migration governance: From ‘multi‐level’ to ‘entangled’

AbstractPolicy actors engaged in migration governance operate in complex environments characterised by spatial entanglements that bring together different levels and jurisdictions. While “levels‐of‐analysis” and multi‐level governance (MLG) frameworks capture some of this complexity, they undertheorise the extent to which migration and mobility are both causes and consequences of other forms of spatial entanglement. This article sets forth an “entangled” approach to migration governance and applies it to the Turkish case. It discusses how historical legacies and regional ties produce enduring cross‐border connections, examining diaspora engagement policies; migration diplomacy; and conflict and security in Turkey through the lens of entangled migration governance.

Diaspora diplomacy: the politics of Turkish emigration to Europe

Diaspora diplomacy explores how the Turkish ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has engaged with the Turkish diaspora in Europe since its rise to power in 2002. It charts the myriad institutions that the AKP has created and mobilized to enhance dialogue with selective diasporic organizations in France and Germany. Ayca Arkilic follows this analysis with a multidimensional assessment of the impact of this rapprochement on: the political agency of the diaspora; the relations between Euro-Turks and host states; the intra-diasporic relations; and Turkey's relations with the European Union (EU). The book is a tour de force, based on 14 months of fieldwork in Turkey, France and Germany. It includes hundreds of interviews with Turkish diaspora leaders, as well as Turkish, French and German policy-makers and journalists. Arkilic provides a welcome contribution to diaspora and diplomacy studies and to International Relations (IR) more generally. The book gives ample empirical evidence to challenge the domestic–international binary that has shaped the IR discipline for decades. The author skilfully interweaves different levels of analysis, from the sub-national to the national, transnational and international, to provide a nuanced context for the rise of the Turkish diaspora as a diplomatic agent. Thus, the book covers an impressive range of actors and their policies: starting with successive Turkish governments’ institutions and their diaspora engagement policies; exploring Turkish diaspora organizations in France and Germany since the 1960s; and also detailing France and Germany's policies regarding immigration, citizenship and integration. In terms of the wider context, Arkilic examines the effects of 9/11 and the ‘war on terror’, and the related impact of Islamophobia and racism on the political and social fabric of European countries.

On the Receiving End of Diaspora Engagement Policies: Evidence from the Turkish Diaspora in Sweden

: While many states directly engage their non-resident populations to rally support for domestic political agendas, extract remittances, or to further foreign policy objectives, few countries have been more active in this space than Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). By the early 2020s, researchers and scholars had obtained a fairly good understanding of the ways in which the Turkish government seeks to (selectively) engage or cooperate with, but also to suppress some members of what it perceives as its diaspora. These efforts are specified in official diaspora engagement policies and implemented through, for instance, governmental institutions like the ‘Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities’ (YTB), or cultural institutions like the ‘Yunus Emre Institutes.’ However, even though scholars have learned a fair bit about the supply side of Turkish diaspora engagement, we know comparatively little about the demand side of and for such efforts. To begin filling this gap, this article switches perspectives from the supplier to the consumer/recipient and seeks to understand better the ways in which diasporans perceive, relate to, and engage with such efforts. By building on primary and secondary sources as well as semi-structured interviews with members of the Turkish diaspora in Sweden, this article seeks to contribute to an understanding of the varied ways in which diasporans relate and react to different forms of state-led diaspora engagement.

Diaspora Engagement Policies as Transnational Social Engineering: Rise and Failure of Turkey’s Diaspora Policies

: In examining the transformations in statecraft, the existing scholarship on Turkish diaspora policies largely adopts Foucault’s governmentality perspective and suggests that the shifting policies reflect the home states’ attempt to assert control over citizens, not through coercion but rather through consent. While this framing has proved workable, it provides limited room for students of diaspora studies to incorporate the overall conceptualization on the resistance in which the non-resident citizens and countries of residence engage vis-à-vis home country politics and the potential failures of these policies. I propose to follow James Scott’s legibility framework to emphasize that the home states’ evolving policies to engage with non-resident citizens is a social engineering project, aiming to facilitate the state’s ability to monitor and mold the behavior of mobile populations in the context of neoliberal globalization. I argue that the legibility framework allows us to analyze not only the standardization processes, but also the resistance against it both from the migrants and from their countries of residence. To make my argument, I employ the framework to the case of Turkey, which has received considerable attention since the mid-2010s. This article is based on archival research of Turkish state documents on emigration, empirical research conducted between 2013 and 2014 involving nearly 100 interviewees including Turkish state officials in Turkey and with migrant representatives in France and the United States, and further examination of secondary resources, including informal talks with policy makers and diaspora representatives in the post-2016 period.

Tanzania’s diaspora engagement: The need for a paradigm shift in diaspora engagement and investment policies

African countries' attitudes towards their diasporas, including Tanzania, have altered substantially during the past decade. Diasporas were not considered as a strategic resource that countries of origin might leverage for growth. This is no longer the case. Diasporas are widely perceived favourably as productive actors: as countrymen and women living abroad who can help their homelands thrive and many countries have successfully engaged and integrated diaspora issues into the process of national development. In this case, this article reviews key policies and initiatives adopted by the Government of Tanzania (GoT) to establish diaspora engagement in the national development policies and plans. It attempts to interpret these efforts within the framework of Tanzania’s modern social, economic, political, and cultural circumstances. Tanzania's experience illustrates a breadth of measures aimed at increasing diasporas’ participation in national economic endeavors. While these initiatives are appreciated, some significant challenges remain unsolved. The paper concludes by arguing that Tanzania has not been too late to re-engage with the diasporas and more efforts need to be made. Some recommendations are offered to improve the effectiveness of current measures to assist policymakers in enacting favorable policies that will maximize the diaspora's potential for national development.

Building the Bonds: A Comparison of Diaspora Engagement Policies in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Diaspora are thought to have political, economic, and social potential in both home and host countries. They are a source of economic investments and remittances for home countries, which can account for a significant portion of a country’s GDP in some cases. The diaspora’s expertise, knowledge, and skills can help social and cultural development in the country of origin. To gain access to these economic, social, and political resources, countries of origin develop diaspora engagement policies and incorporate the diaspora into national political discourse. Central Asian countries are developing relationships with diasporas and compatriot communities, as well as implementing state diaspora engagement policies, while taking diaspora capacity and migration outflow into account. However, the historical, political, economic, and social characteristics of the region’s countries have an impact on policy content and implementation. This paper investigates and compares the main characteristics of Central Asian countries’ diaspora policies, as well as seeks to comprehend and reveal the nature of the state governance system’s impact on diaspora relations. Two Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have been chosen as case studies to examine with document analysis methodology from 2016 to the present, as this period coincides with policy activation in both countries.

Reversing the Brain Drain of Human Capital through China Pakistan Economic Corridor

The research aims to assess the effect of CPEC on reversing the brain drain of Pakistan’s human capital. The research study is based on secondary data by using research articles, economic surveys, Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment etc. CPEC being a multibillion-dollar “Game Changer” can enhance the socio-commerce dimensions by reversing the brain drain of human capital of the country. It can only be possible by devising a viable strategic plan by the government for “Diaspora engagement policies”. The local and overseas Pakistanis should be involved in the projects only through their mobilization and engagement just like China and India did. Although, the present research article gives an insight to socio-economic impact of CPEC on Pakistan.

Diaspora engagement policies and transnational financialisation in Colombia

Although the debate on the migration–remittances–development nexus in Latin America has advanced considerably in recent years, the literature has yet to analyse the socio-political implications of the process of Financialisation of Remittances (FOR) in the region. This paper sheds light on the relationship between the FOR and diaspora engagement policies in Colombia, thus contributing to a growing body of critical analyses on diasporas as agents of development and processes of financialisation beyond the global north. Since the turn of this century, Colombian governments have invested in consolidating part of the state apparatus to capture and maintain the diaspora and their resources connected to the motherland. The paper uses a case study approach centred on a systematic examination of the political–institutional apparatus developed to engage the diaspora and financialise remittances in Colombia over the past 20 years, incorporating a temporal and historical perspective of the triad migration–development–financialisation trends at the national level. It argues that the FOR is a centrepiece of the state's broader strategy for the symbolic and material redefinition of (transnational) membership, in which both, embracing – by extending social and political rights – and tapping – into migrant households’ connections to global circuits of capital and finance – elements co-exist This case is illustrative of how a growing number of states are adopting models of diaspora engagement that, on the one hand, feed into the dominant financialised model of development; and on the other, serve as an instrumental strategy in the emerging architecture of the global governance of migration.

Host state reactions to home state diaspora engagement policies: Rethinking state sovereignty and limits of diaspora governance

AbstractDuring the last few decades, institutions, policies, and other state‐sponsored mechanisms linking home states and diasporas have expanded well beyond traditional areas. Numerous states have established diaspora engagement policies and institutions to tap diaspora resources and maximize their political, economic, and cultural interests. Previous research largely focused on these policies’ motivations and their impact on diasporas, with little attention being paid to the host states’ context. How do host states react to other states’ diaspora engagement policies within their borders? Where do host states draw the line for other states’ involvement in their territory? In this article, we examine Turkey's diaspora engagement initiatives in European countries, and zero in on host states’ reactions to these extraterritorial activities. We argue that diaspora engagement has limits and its scope is determined by the foreign and domestic political processes of the host states and their concern over their sovereignty and security.

Courting Foreign Direct Investment from Diasporas: Are Diaspora Engagement Policies Effective? Under What Conditions?

Although developing countries have developed various kinds of diaspora engagement policies (DEPs) to court foreign direct investment (FDI) from diaspora, we do not know whether these policies matter for investment promotion. Do DEPs contribute to attracting diaspora FDI? Under what conditions might DEPs be most effective at attracting this FDI? DEPs facilitate diaspora FDI by lowering legal, informational, and psychological barriers that diasporas confront when investing in the homeland. These barriers include FDI restrictions, information scarcity, and a lack of meaningful, harmonious ties to the homeland. DEPs are more effective in autocracies where high investment barriers exist and are especially so when they lower informational and psychological investment obstacles. An analysis of diaspora‐weighted FDI from the United States to 25 Asian countries from 2002–2011 lends some support to these claims. While DEPs do not affect diaspora‐weighted FDI flows per se, their positive impact is observed in autocracies, and DEPs' lowering of psychological obstacles drives this conditional impact.

A journey through the realms of the Great Indian Diaspora and India’s diaspora engagement policy

This paper is an attempt to examine the socio-economic-political status of Indian diaspora in their adopted countries. Indian diaspora as a chariot of congenial International relationship between India and their adopted countries. The study also takes into account the unique socio-economic and cultural prospect that the diaspora offers to their adopted countries. As the Global Migration Report 2020 reveals India as a country of having 17.5 million international migrants to the different parts of world. In past two decades, this number has been rising substantially. Consequently, India is recipient of the highest remittance of $ 78.6 billion which is 3.4% of India’s GDP. Indian diaspora plays a major role equally in the politics, economy, diplomatic ties of both the host and home country in addition to promoting Indian culture and garnering support for India at major International forums. Although Indian diaspora exists across the world yet only certain regions of the world are highly concentrated due to various reasons. Indian government has been very serious to reap dividend of Indian diaspora, through policies, to develop India further. But, apart from this picture, this section faces certain challenges and vulnerabilities also. The challenges may vary from region to region and so may the strategies to deal with these challenges. In last two decades, Indian government as well as its state governments have not only become receptive recognizing their relevance for home country-state but also have become dynamically vigilante to their needs. As recent Covid-19 pandemic has surfaced new challenges for migrants across globe, Indian migrants, especially for a better education or livelihood, are no exception. But, the prompt action of Indian government to evacuate them from foreign land, during pandemic, is a recent example. Furthermore, the pandemic has thrown new fears challenges as well. Yet, how the Indian diaspora would survive and flourish post-Covid pandemic is still obscure.

Empowering a fragmented diaspora: Turkish immigrant organizations’ perceptions of and responses to Turkey’s diaspora engagement policy

ABSTRACT The existing literature on state-diaspora relations, primarily in the MENA, has mostly focused on how and why home states engage their diasporas, rather than with what consequences. This article investigates how different groups within the diaspora community are affected by the homeland’s multi-tiered diaspora engagement policy. I argue that sending states influence select immigrant organizations’ mobilization by empowering them in two key ways: They instil self-confidence and collective identity in organization leaders and provide them with capacity-development and know-how support. Yet such differential treatment may become a source of suspicion in host states and cause resentment among the disregarded diaspora groups. The findings draw from extensive fieldwork conducted in France, Germany, and Turkey between 2013 and 2019 and original data derived from interviews, official documents, and news sources.

Courting diaspora for foreign direct investment: The conditional nature of diaspora engagement

AbstractThe paper focuses on an understudied aspect of the relationship between states and their diasporas—emigration policies attracting diaspora investment. I find that countries with weaker rule of law face particularly strong incentives to adopt diaspora engagement policies and engage in initiatives attracting diaspora investment as opposed to the countries with stronger rule of law. This argument is illustrated through an investment game between migrant investors and governments with different strengths of rule of law. It is tested by using the data from multiple levels of analysis: original and existing data examining the instances when top government officials reach out to their diasporas for investment and bilateral foreign direct investment and migration data.

The Paradoxical Nature of Diaspora Engagement Policies: A World Polity Perspective on the Karta Polaka

This paper uses the example of the Karta Polaka to develop a more general argument about the place of diaspora engagement policies in the global political order. Specifically, I address the paradoxical nature of these policies, which are concomitantly undermining and reaffirming the nation-state form as a model for organising political communities. By combining insights from the literature on state-diaspora relations and world polity theory with empirical perspectives yielded from the example of the Karta Polaka, it is argued that diaspora engagement policies challenge an ideal model of the nation-state by reconfiguring citizenship, territory and national belonging as the basic tenets of this model. In this way, diaspora engagement policies such as the Karta Polaka can be understood as a reconfiguration of the nation-state model, which is not indicative of an erosion of state sovereignty but rather, on the contrary, of the resilience and adaptability of the nation-state form to challenges posed by globalisation.

Constitutionalizing Trans-Border Nationhood: From Latin American Perspectives

AbstractThe relationship between state and absent citizens is becoming more important since the globalization of the 1990s. Countries usually try to increase the number of their citizens through two methods. The first is by increasing the number of nationals living abroad using a dual-nationality system. The second is by expanding national power through dual culturalism. These methods increase the international capacity of the home state through the expansion of the de facto state territory from the perspective of network-power theory. Latin American countries have been relatively passive in this diaspora-engagement policy, but recently they have begun to show an active attitude by revising their migration policy—amendments to the Constitution and migration law, dual nationality, dual culturalism, voting rights abroad, and upgrading the status of diaspora agencies, etc. However, it is still unclear how the multinational and multi-ethnic Latin American countries conceptualize diaspora. This paper analyzes the diaspora-engagement policy of Latin American countries from the standpoint of network-power theory and tries to find out what its theoretical framework is. This paper concludes that the theorization work on diaspora should continue to track and analyze these policy changes, since it is difficult to understand what the diaspora concept is and what policy objectives the state is pursuing under the current diaspora-engagement policy.

Diaspora diplomacy: Nordic and Baltic perspective

ABSTRACT The aim of the article is to offer a comparative overview of the latest developments in the Baltic and Nordic state diaspora engagement policies and outreach practices, and to further the understanding of the term diaspora diplomacy. In this article, diaspora diplomacy is understood as the use of Foreign Service, or other branches of government, to promote the systematic relationship, for mutual benefit, between the country of origin government, diaspora groupings in countries of residence, and the various interest associations in both the country of origin and country of residence. In addition to reviewing the diaspora outreach initiatives of the eight countries, the article also utilizes interviews with representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic and Nordic region. The interviews with government representatives offer insight into how diaspora are regarded, if diasporas are thought of as a resource for the home country, and what are the possible future trajectories for diaspora relations.

States of belonging: How conceptions of national membership guide state diaspora engagement

Diasporas are dispersed migrant populations that retain a shared group identity and orientation towards a distant homeland. Increasingly, states are reaching out to their diasporas. They do so in various ways, often coordinated by formal diaspora institutions. In the process, states are reconfiguring what national membership means. How do different conceptions of national membership drive and shape whether and how states ‘engage the diaspora’? Using a mixed methods research design based on original qualitative and quantitative data, this paper examines how three different conceptions of national membership – economic, ethnic, and civic – shape the emergence of formal governmental diaspora institutions in migrants’ states of origin. First, it describes the complex relationship between concepts of national membership and the emergence of diaspora institutions, through two qualitative case studies. Next, the paper employs multinomial logistic regression to systematically examine the relationship between measures of national membership conceptions and measures of diaspora institution establishment, across 181 states. The central finding is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not only economic conceptions of national membership that drive states to engage the diaspora, but also ethnic and civic membership conceptions. This finding suggests the drivers of diaspora policies are more complex and nuanced than is currently understood, and can inform future enquiry on conceptions of national membership and state diaspora engagement policies.