Comparing and theorizing state–diaspora relations

“…and explaining state-diaspora relations Though the term ‘diaspora’ was once reserved for a few archetypal groups that had managed to maintain an intact identity despite traumatic dispersal in the distant past, it is now seen more as an indicator of identity in flux (Cohen, 2008; Safran, 1991).”

“Consistent with findings from previous studies (Délano and Gamlen 2014; Burgess 2020), MPs define and justify their engagement in supporting these communities as part of the broader governable population.”

“Dual citizenship can thus be understood as a practical application of a transnational form of belonging which allows the state to stretch its sovereignty over the overseas population (Delano & Gamlen, 2014; Staeheli et al., 2012).”

“Thus, this article sheds light on these questions to provide more comprehensive representation of the cross-border dynamics of international migration and global migration governance (Délano Alonso and Gamlen 2014).”

“Other studies have focused on the emergence of “emigration states,” defi ned as political and legal arrangements which allow states with a large diaspora to involve their non -resident citizens in their economic development (Collyer 2013; Délano and Gamlen 2014).”

“…population of a certain race/ ethnicity living outside the homeland and highlights the state of alienation of a specific population (Brubaker, 2005), while ‘migrant’ emphasizes the nature of a certain population’s mobility, with less attention to race and ethnic identity (Délano & Gamlen, 2014).”

“The diaspora is imagined in such a way that the nation exceeds the territorial boundaries of the state, with ‘states spilling across their borders in search of their own people’ (Delano and Gamlen 2014, 45).”

“With all the developmental potential that remittances (can) have, governments of countries of origin are motivated to invent ways of “diaspora engagement” because of the opportunity to capitalize on these resources (Vertovec, 2005; Gamlen, 2010; Délano and Gamlen, 2014).”

“23 More generally, there is a growing interest on the side of origin countries to engage with and stay relevant for their now nonresident populations 24 and even their descendants who might be growing up in the diaspora.”

“Studies that deal with states ’ motivations to engage with their diaspora have emphasized three main explanations: utilitarian, identity-based, and governance-oriented (Délano & Gamlen, 2014; Koinova, 2018; Ragazzi, 2014).”

“Sending-states govern their diasporas directly or indirectly, fostering their self-reliance and encouraging homeland-bound contributions (Delano and Gamlen 2014).”

“Theory of state – diaspora relations in general (Délano and Gamlen 2014); emigrant nations and policies shaping their engage-ments with citizens living in foreign countries (Ragazzi 2014; Koinova and Tsour-apas 2018; Adamson and Tsourapas 2019; Adamson 2019); the electoral rights of the citizens…”

“…workers retain home-country citizenship and may maintain cross-border social or institutional ties, which can allow them to strategically draw support from origin states to resolve issues in receiving societies (Délano and Gamlen 2014; Hagan et al. 2018; Waldinger 2015; Weissman et al. 2018).”

“This resurgent optimism has led many countries to include outreach and engagement with emigrants abroad – captured under the increasingly broad term of ‘ diaspora ’ 1 – into their development policies (Délano & Gamlen, 2014; Raghuram, 2009).”

“The study of diaspora politics has largely left civil society groups like the Amazigh behind in recent years to focus on state diaspora outreach (Gamlen, 2008, 2014; Mullings, 2012; Collyer, 2013; Délano and Gamlen, 2014).”

“However, preliminary empirical evidence shows that such policies are numerous and diverse (Delano and Gamlen, 2014; Lafleur and Lizin, 2016).”

“Gamlen et al.’s (2019) comparative study and several others include calls for moving beyond single-country case studies to develop broader theoretical insights on state– diaspora relations (e.g., Délano and Gamlen 2014; Ragazzi 2014; Cohen 2017).”

“Délano and Gamlen (2014) advocate for effective engagement strategies to create ‘win-win-win’ outcomes benefiting migrants, host countries, and home countries.”

“A rapidly growing literature has documented and analysed these policies across the world (Ragazzi 2009, 2014; Collyer 2013; Boccagni 2014; Délano and Gamlen 2014; Gamlen 2014; Adamson 2016), yet only scattered efforts have discussed the public administration dimension of these emigrant policies.”

“The state diaspora institutions take a leading role in supporting and coordinating emigrant-targeting activities that used to be previously decentralized among different ministries, departments, commissions and others (Délano and Gamlen 2014).”

“…suggests that changing institutional context in sending and receiving countries aid immigrants to engage in transnational politics through deliberate policies such as dual citizenship and external voting (see, Délano & Gamlen, 2014; Collyer, 2014), as well as an open and democratic environment.”

“…the relationship between diaspora institution formation and financial capital, contributing to a growing body of critical analyses on diasporas as agents of development and processes of financialisation beyond the global north (Bakker, 2015b; Délano and Gamlen, 2014; Pellerin and Mullings, 2013).”

“Diaspora engagement (Délano & Gamlen, 2014; Gamlen, 2006; Gamlen et al., 2013; Sørensen, 2012), remains a vital nexus to attract human, social and financial capital needed for socio-economic development; Hence, the need for pragmatic development framework.”

“6 However, a recent rise in populist governments around the world, 7 for example, Victor Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary, Erdogan’s Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) in Turkey, and their efforts to use diasporas to gain domestic legitimacy, call for more nuanced explorations of such interactions.”

“At the time, however, the SFRY labor migrant community in Switzerland fits best within the engagement policies as to some extent navigated and developed by home states (Délano and Gamlen, 2014; Gamlen, 2014; e.g., Mencutek and Baser, 2018).”

“The ways in which mobility impacts on migrants’ countries of origin have recently received more academic attention, thereby extending the traditional focus on the migrants’ impact on their destination localities (Délano & Gamlen 2014; Meseguer & Burgess 2014; Zahra 2016; Koinova & Tsourapas 2018).”

“Since the 1990s, relations between states and immigrants have undergone important transformations (Délano & Gamlen, 2014).”

“A brief overview of state-diaspora relations Although still considered relatively scant, the literature on state-diaspora relations is growing and can be characterized by three threads of inquiry (Collyer 2013; Delano and Gamlen 2014).”

“Fewer and fewer countries hold this view, as countries have shifted from the denunciation of emigrant citizens to inclusion and awareness of mutual benefit (Délano and Gamlen 2014; Boccagni, Lafleur, and Levitt 2016).”

“Traditional frameworks such as transnationalism and institutional theory (Vertovec 1999; Délano and Gamlen 2014; Bauböck 2010) have provided valuable insights into diaspora dynamics, yet they tend to cast diasporas as passive participants within state-centric paradigms.”

“…leading to the development of targeted emi-grant policies, and by the mid-2010s the scale of international migration had further prompted both states and international institutions to engage diasporas more directly in diplomacy and governance (Délano and Gamlen, 2014; Gamlen, 2014; Kennedy, 2020).”

“Over the past three decades, European states have increasingly developed strategies to engage with their diasporic populations, framing these communities as important economic, symbolic, and cultural assets (Delano and Gamlen 2014; Ragazzi 2014; Kantek et al. 2021).”

“The term diaspora has broadened to include most displaced groups that maintain ties to a “homeland” rather than merely groups who left the homeland in the “distant past” (Délano & Gamlen, 2014).”