Diaspora Relations Research Articles

Charles Quist-Adade and Wendy Royal, eds., Re-engaging the African Diasporas: Pan-Africanism in the Age of Globalization. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016. Pp. 377. $74.00 (cloth).

Charles Quist-Adade and Wendy Royal, eds., <i>Re-engaging the African Diasporas: Pan-Africanism in the Age of Globalization</i>. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016. Pp. 377. $74.00 (cloth).

‘We’re not coming from Mars; we know how things work in Morocco!’ How diasporic Moroccan youth resists political socialisation in state-led homeland tours

ABSTRACTDiaspora policies, to be defined as emigrant state policies aiming at maintaining and strengthening ties with its expatriate population, have become a regular feature of twenty-first century international politics. A particular diaspora policy strategy adopted by various emigration countries including Morocco is the introduction of state-led homeland tours. These can be understood as an origin-state tool to socialise mainly young expatriate community members with homeland orientations and identities. Both by opponents as by sympathisers of these tours, it is often assumed that homeland tours are effective in their socialisation project. However, this assumption undervalues the agency of tour participants. This article presents an in-depth investigation of the Moroccan Summer Universities, annual state-led homeland tours for college and university students of Moroccan descent, based on participant observation and qualitative interviews. The analysis highlights the tour participants’ resistance against both discourses and practices of these homeland tours’ organisers. As such, the article attends to the need to understand better how state diaspora policies are received by young members of the diaspora, in a situation where state–diaspora relations are tense and policies are top-down.

Mobilizing Diasporas: Insights from Turkey’s Attempts to Reach Turkish Citizens Abroad

Expansion in state‒diaspora relations in recent decades has led to academic research questioning when, why and how sending states develop diaspora policies in order to re-connect with their citizens abroad. Turkey, which has one of the highest rates of emigration in the world, is a particularly important case study in terms of illustrating a turn in the way it perceives its citizens abroad as a diaspora. When the AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power, it attempted to develop a number of diaspora policies to maintain, cultivate and deepen relations with its emigrants with an aim of creating a mobilized transnational community. This article explains the transformation in this newly emerging engagement policy by putting an emphasis on Turkey’s foreign policy aspirations and the diffusion of Turkey’s domestic policies abroad.

European cultural diplomacy: diaspora relations with Kazakhstan

Cultural diplomacy using diasporic communities as facilitators of interaction between states has long been important. This article suggests a typology of networks of communication derived from a case study of long-established diasporas living in post-independence Kazakhstan and their relationship with their European ‘homelands’. The typology juxtaposes the official stance of homeland governments expressed in formal and legal provisions with the lived experience of the diaspora communities. The study highlights the benefits of developing vibrant ‘valued’ networks of communication embracing both local diasporas and homeland embassies and agencies. In such cases, diplomatic benefits accrue to the homeland and local communities are empowered. Similarly, failing to capitalise on positive sentiment with some infrastructural support may leave an ‘expressive’ network as one of neglected potential.

Situating the Place of Youths' between African Union and Africa Diaspora

One of the developments in the African Union (AU) is the recognition and reconnection of Africans in the Diasporas through policy formulations and other affirmative programmes. The aim is to ensure that Africans wherever they are located can reconnect with their roots and have a true sense of identity as Africans. This is a laudable achievement on the part of AU and the entire Africans in the Diaspora. While programmes and activities aimed at bridging this gap are being fashioned out by both parties, one of the major issues that must not be ignored is the inclusion of youth in these activities. Consequently, the questions are: what is the place of youth in AU- Diaspora relations? What are the structures put in place whether at the institutional or at the Diaspora levels in ensuring that youth have a voice in the ongoing bonding process between the two parties? Providing answer to these questions in this article become pertinent at this early stage in order to carry the young ones, the future of tomorrow along in the scheme of things regarding AU and Africans in the Diaspora.

Diaspora, Development and the Indian State

This article attempts to study the engagement of the state of India with the Indian diaspora by situating it within larger debates on diaspora and development and from the perspective of state–society relations. How has the Indian diaspora responded to the initiatives of the Indian state? How have state–diaspora relations affected socio-economic order in India? In order to understand and underline certain complexities in this rubric of diaspora and development, this article takes a long-term analytic perspective in reading the paradigmatic shifts in the theoretical domain of this literature and traces how the approach of the Indian state has led to certain transformations in society. By looking into the composition of the Indian diaspora(s), this article makes a case against the projection of a singular Indian diaspora by the Indian state. It explores whether state–diaspora relations have been influenced by class diversity within the Indian diaspora. The essential rationale of this article is to highlight certain missing links in this discourse of diaspora economic development in the Indian context, without undermining the potentialities of diaspora for development. This study also indicates how these missing links in the initiatives of the state may adversely affect society.

China’s Diaspora Policies as a New Mode of Transnational Governance

Existing studies of Chinese diaspora policies have mostly focused on the evolution and content of these policies, which tend to be confined within the realm of domestic politics. Against the backdrop of China’s increasing integration into the global economy, as well as its expanding interests abroad, this article goes beyond the existing frameworks in the studies of both domestic Chinese politics and diaspora relations by analyzing China’s diaspora policies from the angle of transnational governance. Relying on policy documents, relevant data from institutions involved, and interviews and participatory observation at both central and provincial levels, the article argues that a state-centered approach in which the Chinese overseas are ‘coopted’ neglects how the engagement with transnational social actors, especially the new migrants, alters existing state structures and how the actions of Chinese overseas are driven by various motives and interests.

State‒diaspora relations and bureaucratic politics: the Lavon and Pollard affairs

Israeli foreign policy is a complex process comprising national and Jewish dimensions, whereby the government has often to strike a delicate balance between the desire to protect Israel’s national interests and the need to consider the interests of diaspora Jews. This problem becomes particularly pronounced with regard to national security issues as the security echelons tend to interfere in pure foreign policy issues in total disregard of the Jewish dimension of this policy, and nowhere was this phenomenon more starkly demonstrated than the Lavon and Pollard affairs of the 1950s and 1980s.

Jewish archives and archival documents: Israel and the Diaspora

Throughout 2000 years of exile, Jews amassed documentation reflecting their creativity and organization wherever they lived. Communal archives dating since the Middle Ages have survived. In addition, documentation about Jews is found in archives of rulers, governments, and cities. Conditions changed in the twentieth century due to new developments: the rise of the Jewish national movement, leading to the establishment of the State of Israel, and the destruction of thousands of communities and their cultural possessions in the Holocaust perpetrated against European Jewry by the Nazis. The centrality of Eretz Israel and Israel in Zionist ideology led to the concept that it should be the locale for Jewish archives. Thus, for example, in 1933 the archives of the World Zionist Movement were transferred from Berlin to Jerusalem. The situation became more acute after WWII: If entire or partial archives of destroyed communities survived, to whom do they belong—the states in which they were created or the Jewish people? This dilemma also faces existing communities without archival consciousness. Should everything be concentrated in Israel? In recent years, there has been a change in the paradigm of Israel–Diaspora relations. In a global transnational world, with constantly developing technical means, archives can remain in the communities that created them, provided they are maintained and made available to the public in accordance with accepted archival practice.

Acquiring ‘voice’ through ‘exit’: how Moroccan emigrants became a driving force of political and socio-economic change

This paper argues that labour migrants who emigrated from Morocco between the 1950s and the 1970s have experienced a reconfiguration of their power relationships vis-à-vis and within the Moroccan state. The paper examines Moroccan state–diaspora relations and explores the work of transnational organisations that operate between France and Morocco. It draws on fieldwork carried out between September 2012 and January 2013 through interviews with migrant community leaders, Moroccan government officials and migration scholars as well as participant observation within migrant organisations. Over the years, the Moroccan state has engaged in significant reforms to ensure that this emerging diaspora brings economic, social and political benefits to the state. Given that many Moroccan emigrants come from the most economically disadvantaged and politically marginalised regions, their involvement in development initiatives has called into question existing policies and the role of the state. Emigrants’ involvement in activities related to the sending country needs therefore to be included in the analysis of ‘diaspora policies’ in order to account for migrants’ agency. Reflecting on the relevance of Hirschman's conceptual framework in relation to state–diaspora relations in general and the Moroccan case in particular, the paper argues that Moroccan communities abroad have undergone a process of political empowerment and succeeded in getting a ‘voice’ through their ‘exit’ by making their interests visible to the state.

The soft power of migration – a hard task for the European union

The article studies the range of problems that have emerged due to the growing immigration from Muslim countries into the European Union (EU). While describing the functions of immigrants' communities, the authors focus on their political role in the receiving states. The study of the historical development of government–diaspora relations in three cases (the UK, France, and Germany) shows that Muslim communities' political influence does not reflect their economic and cultural role, which in the future might threaten the EU security, unless these countries develop a new approach to an “acculturation” policy.

Comparing and theorizing state–diaspora relations

This article reviews, synthesizes, and extends the theoretical underpinnings of existing research on state-diaspora relations, highlighting the fragmented, case-study oriented and a-theoretical nature of most existing work in this area, emphasizing the need to compare and theorize state-diaspora relations and suggesting topics and methods through which this can be done. First we describe the range of phenomena under examination and review the various strands of literature informing this area of research. From there we discuss the contribution of this special section of Political Geography and point the way towards a future research agenda that includes a comparative dimension, employs quantitative and qualitative methods, and engages theoretical debates in relation to policy diffusion, governance and norm formation.

BIFFOs, jackeens and Dagenham Yanks: county identity, “authenticity” and the Irish diaspora

Despite being an everyday point of reference in Irish discourse, the extent to which the county serves as a locus of identification has been oddly overlooked in the Irish studies literature. In particular, the persistence of identification with the county of origin post-migration offers new insights on the construction and maintenance of identity within the Irish diaspora. Drawing on my PhD research on discourses of authenticity and identity among the Irish in England, this article investigates the ways in which county identity is invoked both by Irish migrants and those of Irish descent. It illustrates how the county is used as a rhetorical tool to situate the speaker within discourses of belonging and authenticity, but how this may also act as a constraint on the articulation of a collective, diasporic identity. It argues for a greater research focus on translocalism within the context of changing Ireland–diaspora relations.

Creating and destroying diaspora strategies: New Zealand’s emigration policies re‐examined

New Zealand, like many countries, has recently shifted from casting emigrants in a negative light to celebrating expatriates as national champions. What explains this change? Wendy Larner focuses on recent government initiatives towards expatriates as part of a neoliberal ‘diaspora strategy’, aimed at constructing emigrants and their descendants as part of a community of knowledge‐bearing subjects, in order to help the New Zealand economy ‘go global’. This study confirms that the new diaspora initiatives emerged from a process of neoliberal reform. However, it also highlights that in the same period, older inherited institutional frameworks for interacting with expatriates were being dismantled as part of a different dynamic within the wider neoliberalisation process. It argues that the shift in official attitudes towards expatriates arose from the overlap between these two processes in the period 1999–2008. In this way, the research builds on the ‘diaspora strategy’ concept, placing it within a broader analysis of institutional transformation through ‘creative destruction’, and linking it to a wider research agenda aimed at understanding state–diaspora relations beyond the reach of neoliberalism.

Homeland and Diaspora: An Analytical Perspective on Israeli–Jewish Diaspora Relations

The main purpose of this article is to reassess the Israeli–Jewish Diaspora relations from the Israeli perspective and how these are conducted. From this point of view the article focuses on a number of issues, such as the Israeli public's attitudes toward the Diaspora; the current ideologies and agendas in this sphere; the formal positions of Israeli governments; and the debatable issues of interdependence and centrality of the two parts of the Jewish nation. On the basis of these and other connected aspects, the article suggests an analytical framework for the analysis of homeland–diaspora relations from the homeland's perspective. The more general argument is that the Israeli–Jewish case study can serve as an explanatory example according to which other homelands’ relations with their diasporas may be researched and analysed.

Moshe Sharett, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish Diaspora

Moshe Sharett, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish Diaspora1 Gabriel Sheffer (bio) Many observers agree about the marginal position and involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as well as all other ministries active in the sphere of Israeli–Jewish Diaspora relations, which is closely connected to Israeli governments’ general positions and attitudes toward the Jewish Diaspora. The article examines the historical sources of this situation in the Israeli government. It discusses especially the role of the MFA, which, theoretically, should have been very closely involved in Israeli–Jewish Diaspora relations. It focuses mainly on the period from 1948 until the mid-1950s. For this was of course the formative period during which the government and all its ministries were formally established and organized; when the initial government position toward the Jewish Diaspora was formulated; when the relations between the government and the Jewish Agency, which during the Yishuv was the semi-government, were set; and when the ideological and strategic debates were intensifying between the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the first minister of foreign affairs, Moshe Sharett, and his ministry, which was under the full control of Sharett during a period when the relations between him and Ben-Gurion were gradually fading. In June 2005, “twenty highly respectful but worried American Jews” met behind closed doors to discuss the then present and future situation of the entire Jewish nation.2 Those troubled Jewish dignitaries discussed two scenarios about the future of the Jewish People. The first scenario was termed a “realistic nightmare”. Its main points were that until the year 2025 the Jewish nation would encounter difficulties that [End Page 27] would threaten its perseverance. These difficulties would include a world wide major decline in the number of Jews; a growing rate of assimilation; a major decline in the Jewish Diaspora’s power and resources; and a great deterioration in the interest that Israel would show in the Diaspora and in Israeli–Diaspora relations. The second scenario was termed a “realistic [or rather an optimistic] outlook”. Its main points were that the number of Jews would not decline; the Diaspora would prosper; Israel would be the center of the Jewish Nation; the Diaspora’s connection with Israel would be maintained and even strengthened; and the Jewish nation would be a top actor in world culture. It seems now that only to a certain extent the first scenario—the “realistic nightmare”—is gradually materializing. There is no doubt that the Diaspora and Israel are experiencing disturbing demographic, cultural, social, political, and even economic developments. There are some observers who argue that World Jewry and Israel are experiencing significant unfavorable existential changes.3 Therefore, there is no wonder that an ongoing debate is occurring concerning the fundamental question—What are the causes of this forlorn transformation? Some observers accurately attribute these changes to general global and transnational processes that contribute to the marked diminishing ethno-national and national factors, including in the Jewish Nation and in Israel. However, recent studies and surveys show that a lot depends on internal processes inside the Diaspora, on the one hand, and in Israel, on the other hand. Regarding the processes among the Jewish Israelis, it turns out that more and more Israelis are actually less interested in what is happening in the general Diaspora (Israelis with relatives in hostlands with Jewish and Israeli Diasporic entities will show some greater interest not only in their relatives but also with the diasporas in general). Apparently, the lack of public interest, the skepticism about the Diaspora’s future, and a certain degree of hostility toward the Diaspora, have significant impacts on the attitudes of Israeli non-governmental organizations, and the Israeli government’s attitudes, contacts, and activities directed at the Diaspora.4 Among other ministries, such as Finance, Immigrant Absorption, Religious Affairs, and Education, Culture and Sports, which are involved in Israeli–Diaspora relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is hypothetically supposed to perform an essential role in developing and maintaining close relations between Israel and the Diaspora. Yet, as MFA officials and observers of its activities admit, the position and tasks of the MFA as well as all...

Rhetoric and Praxis in Israel—Diaspora Relations

Rhetoric and Praxis in Israel—Diaspora Relations

Actors and Models of Indian Diaspora in International Relations: From Social Parasites to Economic Boon?

Beginning with the conceptualisation of a framework for an underlying matrix of the large expatriate Indian migrant community abroad, which comprises a number of typologies of models and actors, this paper proposes a way of addressing each of the binaries in the sub-matrixes, while still keeping the issues together under a holistic entity called the Indian Diaspora. As a next step, in terms of contextualizing the myriad of these models and actors with international relations per se, it deconstructs the interface between the Indian diaspora and international relations - identifying each as a dependent variable under one construct and as independent variables under a different construct. The choice would depend on which perspective of policy is more dominant in time - of the origin home country of the diaspora or the destination host country. The reason a paradigm shift in the host societies and regions where Indians have settled has become important lies in the realization that, given certain assumptions, one type of diasporic actors - the suspect 'social parasite' can become the other, the 'economic boon'. This has in turn led to a major paradigm shift in India too - away from 'brain drain' being looked at as an outright loss, and therefore painful for the country, to an opportunity, and therefore gainful. What role the diaspora would play in making these transformations reality is still an open question.

Indian Diaspora and Indo-Canadian Relations

(2007). Indian Diaspora and Indo-Canadian Relations. Diaspora Studies: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 59-76.

Indian Diaspora and Indo-Canadian Relations

Indian Diaspora and Indo-Canadian Relations