When Migrants Set the Tone: Diaspora Engagement and the Politics of Mobility

• In Event: Diaspora Engagement in Peacebuilding and Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

Conventional wisdom represents transnational political engagement as mainly top-down and state-led. In other words, diaspora politics occurs as a result of the transnational outreach work of state and non-state political agents within countries of origin, such as political parties, bureaucracies, civil society organizations, and other institutions (Adamson and Tsourapas 2019; Koinova and Tsourapas 2018; Alonso and Mylonas 2017; Lafleur 2013). Recently, however, migrants and diasporas have shown readiness to participate in sending-country politics independently from state-led mobilizing efforts. Migrants have increasingly acted as stakeholders in democratic consolidation, peace-building, post-conflict reconciliation, state-building processes, and political transitions (IDEA 2018). While traditional diasporas distanced themselves from former homelands when trying to settle down and integrate in receiving societies (Guarnizo, Portes, and Haller 2003; Itzigsohn and Villacrés 2008), more recent migrants have demonstrated strong political interest in homeland realities, engaging in electoral and non-electoral forms of participation. Half a million Mexicans who live in the United States registered to vote in the 2018 presidential elections in Mexico. Almost one million Romanians voted from abroad in the 2019 presidential elections. Out-of-country voting had many consulates struggle to accommodate expat voters at election time (Venezuela, Romania, and Poland). For countries that do not allow absentee voting, migrants have returned to cast a ballot in national elections or referenda (Taiwan, Ireland). Many politicians have developed reputations for cultivating transnational ties with expat voters (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Romanian former President Traian Basescu, Polish former Prime Minister Donald Tusk), but many others have benefitted from migrants’ participation without campaigning abroad (Romanian President Klaus Iohannis). Recent migrants have also defied expectations by engaging in non-electoral forms of participation, e.g. the Diaspora Returns Home movement in 2018 (Romania), British expat anti-Brexit protests across the EU etc. What explains the rise in grassroot forms of diaspora politics? This paper examines different varieties of transnational political engagement and develops a typology on the spectrum between state-led/top-down and society-led/bottom-up forms of political interaction between sending countries and their citizens abroad. The paper analyzes the factors that influence migrants’ agency and the likelihood that citizens abroad mobilize to change politics in their countries of origin. Using recent and historical cases from across the world, the paper studies the interactions between top-down and bottom-up diaspora politics, and sheds light on the contexts most likely to amplify migrants’ political voice.

Author

• Ruxandra Paul, Amherst College