Homeland Politics Research Articles

Multi-scalar and diasporic integration: Kurdish populations in Europe between state, diaspora and geopolitics

Abstract This article challenges both methodological nationalist and decolonial approaches to ‘integration’ by drawing attention to how transnational factors—including trans-state diaspora networks and geopolitical relations between European states and Kurdish ‘homelands’—have direct impacts on the integration trajectories of newly arrived Kurdish displaced populations in Europe. Based on over 200 interviews with Kurdish immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers across seventeen sites in rural and urban regions in six European countries, our research suggests the need to move beyond local and national-level understandings of integration to one which is also transnational, diasporic, and multi-scalar, taking account of the enduring effects of homeland politics on integration determinants. Such a model of integration does not throw out the concept, but recognizes both the protective and empowering role that local and national policies can play in enabling refugee and diaspora populations to function autonomously in a broader transnational and global context.

Gazing Homeland Politics: A Case Study of The Political Engagement of The Indonesian Diaspora Group Manila

As per the data provided by KPU, the 2019 Election witnessed the participation of 2,058,191 voters amongst the Indonesian Diaspora. This number marks an increase of 19,480 voters from the previous Presidential Election held in 2014, wherein 2,038,711 registered voters across 130 Indonesian representatives abroad had cast their votes. The surge in Indonesian Diaspora voters indicates their significant role in election contests. The involvement of the Indonesian Diaspora in homeland politics is significantly impacted by their ability to stay informed about current events and maintain solid familial ties with their home country. Online platforms and social media play an essential role in keeping the Diaspora apprised of political developments and expanding their understanding of the issues. This article explores the political engagement of Indonesian diaspora communities residing in Metro Manila, Philippines, in the lead-up to the 2019 elections. The research centers on a church member group in ICF Makati, which is conventionally regarded as a non-political organization. The study employs a blend of observations and interviews to investigate how the Indonesian diaspora community participates in political affairs. Specifically, the research scrutinizes how they deliberate on topics concerning their homeland's politics and exchange their perspectives on current political events. Findings indicate that the Indonesian Diaspora is becoming more discerning of the political landscape in their homeland. This is primarily due to the widespread political discourse taking place online. Social media platforms have made it effortless for people to remain actively informed about political developments in their home country. Additionally, the Indonesian Diaspora has demonstrated a heightened interest in homeland politics, particularly in the lead-up to elections, to express their imagined nationalism. Keywords: Diaspora group, Presidential Election 2019, Political Engagement, Social Media usage

Migrant transnationalism and time: divergent trajectories of diasporic political engagement in early 20th century São Paulo

ABSTRACT Why and how do some migrant groups demonstrate greater engagement with homeland politics than others at particular historical moments? Research has examined both individual-level factors such as migrants’ resources and institutional factors such as contexts of incorporation. Less theorised, however, are the ways in which factors are mediated by temporal contexts such as timing and sequence. Drawing on the notion of path dependence, this study analyses how the temporal orders of four institutional factors – 1) the socioeconomic context of reception, 2) incorporative policies of the receiving state, 3) diaspora policies of the sending state, and 4) migrant networks – resulted in divergent levels of diasporic engagement between Italian and Japanese migrants in early twentieth century Brazil. My findings show that the socioeconomic context of reception provides the initial condition on which migrants develop their networks. Second, the timing of when diasporic policies – relative to incorporative policies – reach out to migrant networks affects the breadths of social class involvement in diasporic engagement. This study contends that timing plays a critical role in producing divergent levels of diasporic engagement at the group-level.

Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants

Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants

Motivations of diaspora support in homeland civil conflict

Although diasporas often leave their homelands due to violence or political upheaval, these groups may engage in homeland politics by providing financial, material, or diplomatic assistance to militants engaged in civil conflicts. Conversely, diasporas may ignore homeland civil conflicts and exclusively focus on opportunities available in their host states. This study argues that variation in diasporas’ degree of integration into their host states influences whether diasporas support militants opposing homeland governments. Diaspora members may be dissimilated, which undermines their ability to consolidate resources in support of homeland militants, or incorporated, which limits their will to engage in homeland civil conflicts. Moderately integrated diasporas, which maintain identity ties with the homeland and have access to beneficial resources, are most likely to aid militants fighting homeland civil conflicts. Using original data, I test and find support for this integration-based theory.

Homeland politics, imagined homeland, and the formation of Oromo diaspora identity

ABSTRACT This article looks at how homeland politics have shaped the perceptions of the homeland and host countries among the Oromo diaspora community. Unfavorable political conditions in Ethiopia have encouraged ethnic Oromo living in North American diaspora communities to construct alternative physical and social landscapes that evoke feelings of nostalgia while maintaining their engagement with homeland affairs. These imagined landscapes have gradually become an integral part of their enduring memories, and most of the forced emigres are now keen to involve themselves in the social and economic issues of their place of birth, rather than simply focusing on their daily routines in their host countries. This demonstrates an ongoing nexus between the country of origin and host countries that maintains and encourages transnationalism.

Collective Memory and Collective Forgetting: A Comparative Analysis of Second-Generation Somali and Tamil Immigrants and Their Stance on Homeland Politics and Conflict

Collective Memory and Collective Forgetting: A Comparative Analysis of Second-Generation Somali and Tamil Immigrants and Their Stance on Homeland Politics and Conflict

Social Media and the Online Political Engagement of Immigrants: The Case of the Vietnamese Diaspora in Poland

This study investigates the political engagement of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland on social media. It employs the typology of online political participation as a theoretical framework to determine the pattern of online involvement in the political sphere staged by the migrant group. Through analysing materials relating to political discussions created daily on an online community of the Polish Vietnamese, collected by doing netnography, this study shows that the political activism on social media of Vietnamese immigrants in Poland exists and varies. Vietnamese-migrant users discuss homeland politics and express views about political issues in the host country as well as other countries by creating non-mobilising posts (Information and Diffusion), while being inclined to produce posts with calls for action (Instruction and Promotion) to criticise social injustice and mobilise equality. This study also found a growing critical attitude towards homeland politics among Vietnamese-origin individuals in the country. The findings have practical implications for associations and state actors in both the host and home countries to account for the evolvement of the migrant community.

The Difficulties of Italian Muslim Political Mobilization: Anti-Muslim Sentiment and Internal Fragmentation

This paper focuses on the political participation and mobilization of Muslims in Italy, an understudied topic. A few existing studies outline that Italian Muslim involvement in the political process has been quite low on both the local and national levels. However, along with the notable recent growth of the Muslim population in Italy, a certain evolution of political mobilization has occurred as well. This paper will analyze how Italian Muslim political participation, both through non-electoral and electoral channels, has evolved through time. It will question what are the key issues and challenges for participation; and to what extent homeland politics and foreign policy events have affected political mobilization. It will argue that even though some limited evolution of political mobilization has occurred in recent year, the Italian Muslim political participation and impact both remain rather limited due to the strong anti-Muslim sentiment in Italy, as well as due to internal fragmentation of Muslim communities.

Homeland Political Trust Among Emigrants: The Case of Finland-Swedes

How does emigrating affect one's political trust for their native country's political and state institutions? This question is increasingly relevant as a result of growing migration in the wake of globalization and the willingness to widen electoral laws and channels for participation to also include emigrated citizens in homeland politics. Despite the research conducted on homeland politics and voting from abroad in political science, the question of homeland political trust among emigrants has not been given sufficient attention. This could be seen as surprising from the perspective of trust research, which has exhaustively analyzed political and social trust. This paper seeks to map the effect of migration on political trust by comparing the trust in Finnish political and state institutions of emigrated Swedish-speaking Finns, also known as Finland-Swedes, and Finland-Swedes living in Finland. The Finland-Swedes are a resourceful minority with a sizeable diaspora, which in relative terms is comparable to nations with a renowned diaspora. The paper analyzes the political trust of migrants and residents with two high quality random surveys and using two methods, linear regression and propensity score matching, with analysis of average treatment effects to counter potential endogeneity of political trust and migrating citizens. The analyses show emigrants have on average significantly higher homeland political trust. Comparing the linear regression analysis and the average treatment effects after matching we get similar results, although the linear regression analysis that controls for potentially endogenous factors seems to somewhat exaggerate the effect of migration.

Understanding Intraethnic Diversity

Abstract This paper fills a scholarly gap in the understanding of intraethnic diversity by way of a case study of the formation of a Taiwanese American identity. Drawing on a review of the existing scholarly literature and data from systematic field observations, as well as secondary data including ethnic organizations’ mission statements and activity reports, we explore how internal and external processes intersect to drive the construction of a distinct Taiwanese American identity. The study focuses on addressing three interrelated questions: (1) How does Taiwanese immigration to the United States affect diasporic development? (2) What contributes to the formation of a Taiwanese American identity? (3) In what specific ways is the Taiwanese American identity sustained and promoted? We conceive of ethnic formation as an ethnopolitical process. We argue that this ethnopolitical process involves constant negotiation and action in multiple spaces beyond nation-state boundaries. We show that immigration dynamics and homeland politics interact to create diversified rather than homogenized patterns of diasporic development and ethnic identification. The lifting of martial law in 1987 and democratization in Taiwan since then have led to increased public support for Taiwanization and Taiwanese nationalism in Taiwan. Rising nationalism in the homeland has in turn invigorated efforts at constructing an ethnonational – Taiwanese American – identity in the diaspora through proactive disidentification from the Chinese American community and civic transnationalism. This ethnopolitical identity is re-affirmed through cultural reinvention, outreach and networking, and appropriation of Taiwan indigenous cultures and symbols. We conclude by discussing the complexity of diasporic development and identity formation.

EXPLORING NETWORKED IDENTITY AND TRANSNATIONAL MOBILIZATION IN UKRAINE’S EUROMAIDAN PROTEST

Social media are a prominent space for diasporic mobilization and activism, opening new avenues for studying transnational communities living outside of their countries of origin. This study uses a hybrid methodological approach to consider how Ukrainians living in the United States engaged with homeland politics during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protest and how their use of social media intervened in their transnational protest politics. This study contributes to the broader scholarship on studying transnational mediated protest participation by examining a case of diasporic mobilization of the Ukrainian community in the United States. Triangulating semantic mapping data from online diasporic communities on Facebook with in-depth interviews, we show how diaspora members engaged in the protest despite distance and how their activity and tactical decisions were mediated by social networks. We specifically examine how diasporic personal networks and networked technologies enmesh into a set of hybrid networked practices, circumscribing how Ukrainian Americans interpret political engagement and how they strategically use the affordances of social media for protest participation.

Diaspora: Dislocation, Development and Drawback

This study focuses on painful feelings and bitter experiences of diasporas while they are living in the host land. It stresses on their efforts to maintain connections with people in their homeland. Besides, the research talks about diasporas' attempt to assimilate, acculturate and integrate in the host countries in their dislocated and un-homely state. The study also explores the changing attitude of intellectuals, writers, journalists and politicians of host countries towards diasporas, that they have recognized diasporas' positive culture and economic contribution to host societies. Gradually and cautiously host societies and their governments accept diaspora members' affiliations as legitimate and sought for their permanence. Moreover, in some host countries, and in liberal circles, membership of such entities has been regarded as exciting and advantageous but not as an obstacle. Yet, the migrants constantly face criticisms and detriments. They establish networks back in their country of origin and try to influence homeland's politics and sometimes support the violent activities. On top of that, the continued migration and increase in remittances encourage chain of migration and brain drain, and create instability in homeland economy.

Going up or getting out? Professional insecurity and austerity in the South African health sector

AbstractAs a precondition of belonging, professionalism is often a taken-for-granted feature of being middle-class. Yet ethnographic attention to experiences of work reveals that professional identity can be fragile. Drawing on ethnographic research among nurses in KwaZulu-Natal, this article traces the feelings of precarity about work and the ambivalence that pervades ideas of professionalism. This ambiguity arises partly out of a peculiarly South African story in which histories of professionalism are entwined with the repressive apartheid project of separate development. Many of the professionals working as teachers, nurses, lawyers and administrators today were trained in the former ‘homelands’. Practices of professionalism are entangled with those of clientelism inherited from this earlier period of homeland politics. These local histories combine with wider processes of neoliberalism, as conditions of austerity produce structural shifts towards casualization. The article traces these dynamics in the stories of two nurses and considers what may be at stake politically as middle-class trajectories are threatened. Moving away from a view of the middle classes as either democratic or anti-democratic, feelings of ambivalence about work make questions of political allegiance an ambiguous and fraught matter.

Emerging Transnational Practices and Capabilities of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Transnational activities of refugees in the Global North have been long studied, while those of the Global South, which host the majority of displaced people, have not yet received adequate scholarly attention. Drawing from refugee studies, transnationalism and diaspora studies, the article focuses on the emerging transnational practices and capabilities of displaced Syrians in Turkey. Relying on qualitative data drawn from interviews in Şanlıurfa – a border province in south-eastern Turkey that hosts half a million Syrians - the paper demonstrates the variations in the types and intensity of Syrians’ transnational activities and capabilities. It describes the low level of individual engagement of Syrians in terms of communicating with relatives and paying short visits to the hometowns as well as the intentional disassociation of young refugees from homeland politics. At the level of Syrian grassroots organisations, there have been mixed engagement initiatives emerging out of sustained cross-border processes. Syrians with higher economic capital and secured legal status have formed some economic, political, and cultural institutional channels, focusing more on empowerment and solidarity in the receiving country than on plans for advancement in the country of origin. Institutional attempts are not mature enough and can be classified as transnational capabilities, rather than actual activities that allow for applying pressure on the host and home governments. This situation can be attributed to the lack of political and economic security in the receiving country as well as no prospects for the stability in the country of origin. The study also concerns questions about the conceptual debates on the issue of refugee diaspora. Whilst there are clear signs of diaspora formation of the Syrian refugee communities, perhaps it is still premature to term Syrians in Turkey as refugee diaspora.

Un estado de la cuestión del transnacionalismo político de los migrantes colombianos

El estudio de las prácticas políticas transnacionales de los migrantes ha tenido diversos niveles de participación en el amplio campo de las migraciones internacionales, y ha sido una preocupación relativamente reciente en Europa y América Latina, donde está menos desarrollado que en Estados Unidos. En consecuencia, son escasos los trabajos que abordan el transnacionalismo político de colombianos, lo cual contrasta con el número de investigaciones que abordan el desplazamiento forzado y la migración colombiana.De los trabajos existentes, en Estados Unidos, resaltan especialmente las investigaciones comparativas entre grupos de inmigrantes, desde metodologías cuantitativas y bajo el enfoque analítico de las redes sociales; mientras que, en Europa, se destaca el estudio de casos específicos, que articulan la teoría de la acción colectiva y la teoría de los factores push-pull, bajo metodologías cualitativas. En todos los casos, las investigaciones que se preguntan por las prácticas políticas de los colombianos con respecto al contexto de salida, homeland politics, son aquellas que mayor atención han tenido a nivel general.El transnacionalismo político es un campo de estudios relativamente nuevo, y conviene resaltar su importancia en tanto que busca atender a la dimensión política de la migración, en este caso de colombianos, no solo como causa —pues al respecto existe un patrimonio importante de investigaciones—, sino como práctica política de participación de estos migrantes en otras latitudes.En este orden de ideas, el objetivo de esta investigación no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas desde las cuales ha sido abordado el transnacionalismo político de los colombianos. Para esto, trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, que me permitió hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social a través del estado del arte; dicho paradigma se entiende como investigación de la investigación, en tanto que busca establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes sobre este. Dicho esto mi objetivo en este trabajo no es hacer teoría de las migraciones internacionales, sino aproximarme a describir las diferentes perspectivas analíticas desde las que ha sido abordado el trasnacionalismo político de los colombianos, reconociendo que es un campo relativamente nuevo dentro de los estudios migratorios. En este sentido, organizaré la presentación así: primero, presentaré el abordaje metodológico que sustenta el estado de la cuestión; segundo daré cuenta de las investigaciones enfocadas a las prácticas de los inmigrantes con respecto al país de origen; tercero presentaré los trabajos que enfatizan en las prácticas políticas en el contexto de recepción con respecto a su situación de inmigrantes; cuarto presentaré los trabajos que triangulan “Inmigrant politics” y “homeland politics”; y quinto, daré mis conclusiones frente al campo de estudios y el panorama del transnacionalismo político de los colombianos.Para efectos de esta investigación trabajé desde el paradigma histórico hermenéutico, puesto que me permite hacer un rastreo comprensivo del fenómeno social bajo la perspectiva del estado del arte. Los estados del arte son entendidos como “investigación de la investigación”. en tanto buscan establecer un panorama del patrimonio investigativo existente sobre un tema, para derivar en nuevas reflexiones, preguntas y abordajes del mismo.Palabras claves: transnacionalismo político, migración, colombianos, organizaciones sociales, participación política.

Diaspora : Dislocation,Development and Drawback

This study focuses on diasporas painful feelings and bitter experiences while they are living in the host land. It stresses on their efforts to maintain connections with people back in their homeland. Besides, the research talks about diasporas's attempt to assimilate, acculturate and integrate in the host countries in their dislocated and unhomely state. the study also explore the changing attitude of intellectuals, writers, journalists and politicians of host countries towards diasporas, that they have recognized diasporas' positive culture and economic contribution to host societies. Gradually and cautiously more host societies and their governments are accepting diaspora members' affiliations as legitimate and sought for their permanence. Moreover, in some host countries, and in liberal circles, membership of in such entities has been regarded as exciting and advantageous but not as an obstacles. Yet, the migrants are backed by criticisms and detriments. They establish networks back in their country of origin and try to influence homeland's politics and sometimes support the violent activities. On top of that, the continued migration and increase in remittances encourage chain of migration and brain drain, and create instability in homeland economics.

Suppressing transnationalism: bringing constraints into the study of transnational political action

Studies of transnationalism typically account for homeland-oriented transnational political action (TPA) as the product of varying political opportunities. Yet, the opportunity-driven perspective overlooks why some immigrant and diaspora communities refrain from engaging in homeland politics or are forestalled in their attempts to do so. We address this shortcoming by theorizing how sociopolitical conditions can constrain TPA. Drawing inductively from primary data on Pakistani, Syrian, Libyan, and Yemeni diasporas as well as secondary sources, we identify four sources of constraint: 1) geopolitics and interstate relations; 2) origin-country authoritarianism; 3) weak origin-country governance; and 4) exclusionary receiving-country contexts. By demonstrating how these socio-political forces suppress TPA, we contribute a new theoretical approach that emphasizes the conditions and relations that hinder cross-border political action. In sum, the article illustrates the theoretical importance of understanding variation in TPA and the utility of examining negative cases in the study of immigrant and diaspora transnational politics.

Assessing co-development projects for civil society building in Iraq: the case of the Iraqi diaspora and Swedish institutions following the 2003 intervention in Iraq

ABSTRACTWhile the literature has expounded diaspora’s involvement in homeland politics through lobbying efforts to influence hostland foreign policies, involvement in homeland conflicts and peace-building, this paper addresses a less-explored area in the diaspora literature related to the development of democracy through transnational civil society building. Using the case study of the Iraqi diaspora in Sweden, this paper assesses co-development projects financed by Sweden’s International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA) between Swedish institutional partners and Iraqi diaspora organizations from 2004 to 2008. Looking at both the perspective of the diaspora and public officials in Sweden, the paper problematizes the notion of diaspora as development partners and provides a nuanced understanding and new insights into the opportunities, challenges and limitations of diasporic initiatives aimed at supporting homeland civil society. Diaspora initiatives, it is argued, need to consider homeland security, understandings of development and goals, as well as homeland social and political contexts for exploring the opportunities and limitations of diasporic contributions. This is important for understanding both how and when diaspora’s involvement is to be supported, especially in conflict or post-conflict settings.

Diasporas from the Middle East: Displacement, Transnational Identities and Homeland Politics

Migrants and refugees from Middle Eastern countries are scattered around the globe, predominantly in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region, Europe and the USA. Between 2005 and 2015, the n...