Developing a Road Map for Engaging Diasporas in Development: A Handbook for Policymakers and Practitioners in Home and Host Countries

State governments recognize the value diaspora populations bring to development efforts worldwide. Since 2007, the Global Forum on Migration and Development has examined ways to highlight policies and programs that can magnify the resources, both human and financial, that emigrants and their descendants contribute to development. This practical handbook continues that effort on the basis of earlier investigations by the book’s collaborating institutions, the academic and policy literature, consultations and in-depth interviews with government officials and nongovernmental actors.

The user-friendly guide, a project of MPI and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), offers a strategic road map for governments to build a constructive relationship with diasporas and examines the success and failure of policies, programs, and initiatives undertaken to date. The handbook includes responses by 62 national governments to a two-part survey designed and administered for this project.

The diaspora handbook’s first five chapters focus on capacity building, the importance of rigorous monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs, the legal and institutional frameworks established to facilitate diaspora engagement, and the legislative and regulatory frameworks by which diasporas engage with their countries of origin. The final six chapters examine the key areas in which diaspora members have played positive development roles: remittances, direct investment, human capital transfer, philanthropy, capital market investment, and tourism – offering lessons and policy options for each.

The pivotal question now facing many policymakers is not so much if diasporas can benefit their countries of origin but how they do so and what kinds of government policies and programs can foster these relationships.

The handbook is free to download in its entirety, or download individual chapters below. To purchase a paperback copy of the book, click here.