Diaspora Engagement in Peacebuilding and Democratic Consolidation

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel explains the rise in grassroot forms of diaspora politics with a focus on the challenges of democratic consolidation and peacebuilding. Specifically, it explores how migrants set the tone in electoral politics, attempts to counter or consolidate authoritarianism, and promote peacebuilding. While recognizing the contradictory roles that established diaspora organisations play, it identifies general patterns and emerging forms of diaspora politics. Paul examines different varieties of transnational political engagements 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 while Adamson and Dag analyse the different roles that diaspora groups play in providing alternative support structures, connecting new arrivals to local services and fostering a sense of connection to and engagement with the “homeland.” Meanwhile, Tsourapas introduces the term transnational authoritarianism in order to better comprehend how autocracies aim to maximize economic gains from citizens’ “exit” while minimizing political risks by controlling their “voice” once abroad. Finally, Morgan-Jones and Loizides shed light to preferences for political accommodation of diasporic groups compared to their native communities engaged in protracted conflicts. Drawing on APSA’s 2020 theme on democratization and difference, the four contributions employ a wide range of methodological approaches specifically: case-studies, survey experiments, qualitative interviews and micro-institutional studies as well as shed light to the global challenges of diaspora and migration politics.

Sub Unit

• Division 52: Migration & Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• When Migrants Set the Tone: Diaspora Engagement and the Politics of Mobility - Ruxandra Paul, Amherst College

• Diasporic Solidarity in Crisis Times: Transnationalism and Refugees in Europe - Fiona B. Adamson, University of London, SOAS

Chair

• Elizabeth F. Cohen Syracuse University

Discussant

• Harris Mylonas George Washington University