Full Description
The Microfoundations of Diaspora Politics examines the various actors within and beyond the state that participate in the design and implementation of diaspora policies, as well as the mechanisms through which diasporas are constructed by governments, political parties, diaspora entrepreneurs, or international organisations.
Extant theories are often hard-pressed to capture the empirical variation and often end up identifying 'exceptions'. The multidisciplinary group of contributors in this book theorise these 'exceptions' through three interrelated conceptual moves: first, by focusing on understudied aspects of the relationships between states as well as organised non-state actors and their citizens or co-ethnics abroad (or at home - in cases of return migration). Second, by examining dyads of 'origin' states and specific diasporic communities differentiated by time of emigration, place of residence, socio-economic status, migratory status, generation, or skills. Third, by considering migration in its multiple spatial and temporal phases (emigration, immigration, transit, return) and how they intersect to constitute diasporic identities and policies. These conceptual moves facilitate comparative research and help scholars identify the mechanisms connecting structural variables with specific policies by states (and other actors) as well as responses by the relevant diasporic communities.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Contents
1. Unpacking the state and disaggregating the diaspora: The microfoundations of diaspora politics
Alexandra Délano Alonso and Harris Mylonas
2. Explaining the rise of diaspora institutions
Alan Gamlen, Michael E. Cummings and Paul M. Vaaler
3. Where and why can expatriates vote in regional elections? A comparative analysis of regional electoral practices in Europe and North America
Jean-Thomas Arrighi and Jean-Michel Lafleur
4. Competing for the diaspora's influence at home: party structure and transnational campaign activity in El Salvador
Michael Ahn Paarlberg
5. Diaspora policy in weakly governed arenas and the benefits of multipolar engagement: lessons from the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt
Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff
6. Bifurcated homeland and diaspora politics in China and Taiwan towards the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia
Enze Han
7. The disinterested state: negative diasporic policy as an expression of state inclusion and national exclusion
Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels
8. Foreign policy priorities and ethnic return migration policies: group-level variation in Greece and Serbia
Harris Mylonas and Marko Žilović
9. States and standardisation: constructing the co-ethnic migrant story in Germany
Olga Zeveleva
10. Securing the diasporic 'self' by travelling abroad: Taglit-Birthright and ontological security
Yehonatan Abramson
11. '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
Rilke Mahieu
