E.g., 04/28/2024
E.g., 04/28/2024
Diaspora Engagement

Diaspora Engagement

_ChinatownLondon

Governments at both ends of the migration cycle increasingly recognize the value that diaspora populations bring to development efforts and are seeking ways to magnify the human capital and financial resources that emigrants and their descendants contribute to development in their countries of origin. Beyond the remittances they generate, diaspora members fulfill a key development role in their countries of origin: as major direct investors in critical and emerging industries, generous philanthropists and first movers in the growth of important sectors such as tourism, and in the development of human capital.

 

Recent Activity

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Approximately 122,000 Tibetans, including those of Tibetan ancestry, live outside their homeland. Seonaigh MacPherson, Anne-Sophie Bentz, and Dawa Bhuti Ghoso provide an in-depth look at Tibetan history and Tibetans' migration to India and the West in this first of our two-part series on the Tibetan diaspora.

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While Ethiopians have long followed seasonal migration patterns within the Horn of Africa, it was only after the political upheavals of the 1970s that they began to settle in the West, as MPI's Aaron Matteo Terrazas reports.

Belonging to a diaspora entails a consciousness of, or emotional attachment to, a place of origin and its culture. Steve Vertovec of the University of Oxford explains the role diasporas play in migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries.

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Kenya is looking to its educated diaspora to meet development goals and achieve global competitiveness, according to MPI’s Ken Okoth.

Nicholas Van Hear of the Institute for International Studies presents some of the distinct features of refugee diasporas, as well as their impact on development policy.

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Recent Activity

Articles
The immigration debate in the United States often focuses on how many foreign born enter and reside in the country. Much less attention is paid to Americans who live abroad—a population estimated at anywhere from 2 million to 7 million. This article examines the challenges of enumerating this population and also explores top destinations for American expats, their livelihoods, and motivations for leaving the United States.
Articles

El Salvador's lengthy civil war crushed diasporas' opportunities for political or civic engagement in this small, densely-populated Central American nation. However, hometown associations—diaspora organizations that contribute to the development needs of their members' hometowns—represent a modern-day venue for civil society participation. This article explores how diasporas are contributing to development in more ways than just cash flows and projects by transforming the governance landscape.

Policy Briefs
November 2012

This brief explores how governments in Asia are facilitating diaspora contributions, including creation of conducive legal frameworks and diaspora-centered institutions to initiation of programs that specifically target diasporas as development actors.

Articles

Immigration and international development policy conversations have become entangled in the U.S. context, not necessarily to the benefit of either debate. This article explores how a contemporary understanding and decoupling of the issues can contribute to more effective policymaking.

Video
July 25, 2012

The 2012 Global Diaspora Forum challenged diaspora communities to forge partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and public institutions in order to make their engagements with their countries of origin or ancestry effective, scalable, and sustainable.

Video, Audio
July 11, 2012

A discussion with Dr. Noppawan Tanpipat, Vice President, National Science and Technology Development Agency; Frank Laczko, Head, Migration Research Division, IOM; Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias, Regional Research Officer, IOM, and Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute (MPI); and Kathleen Newland, Director of Migrants, Migration, and Development, Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

Video, Audio
June 26, 2012

This discussion highlights the best practices and experiences of different countries in engaging and maximizing the contributions that diasporas can and do make to the development of their country of origin, and more broadly the experience of policymakers in both sending and receiving countries and the related challenges and opportunities they face.

Audio
June 22, 2012

This discussion includes a status of preparation of the 2012 GFMD summit, including a discussion on the possible ideas and projects presently being contemplated that would fully integrate migration into the development framework, with a special focus on Africa.

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