Diasporic Solidarity in Crisis Times: Transnationalism and Refugees in Europe

• In Event: Diaspora Engagement in Peacebuilding and Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

This paper examines the complex and at times contradictory roles that established diaspora organisations play as “brokers” vis-à-vis newly arrived refugees in Europe. Focusing on the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, and based on over 200 interviews with leaders of diaspora organisations and recent refugees and migrants, we examine diaspora organisations as a form of stateless transnationalism that shapes the arrival experience of Kurdish populations from Syria, Turkey and Iraq. The paper conceptualises diasporic solidarity as a form of refugee governance from below, and analyses the different roles that diaspora groups play as 1) providing alternative support structures 2) connecting new arrivals to local services and integration programmes and 3) fostering a sense of connection to and engagement with the “homeland.” Drawing on examples of Kurdish diaspora-refugee interaction across 15 cities in Europe, the paper discusses how the balance of these three functions shifts based on a range of factors, such as the type and orientation of the diaspora organisation; the nature of local refugee integration regimes; and the relations that diaspora organisations have with one another, local government agencies and civil society groups. The paper’s focus on diasporic solidarity towards newly arrived refugees calls into question binary distinctions between “local integration” and “homeland politics,” highlighting the fact that newly-arrived refugees exist in a complex matrix of local, national and transnational governance structures.

Author

• Fiona B. Adamson, University of London, SOAS