Toward an Interdisciplinary Research Agenda on Diaspora Investments: Exploring the Drivers, Effects, and Policy Incentives

• In Event: 321 - Section on International Migration Paper Session. International Migration and Development

Abstract

The integration of national economies is increasingly linked to the movement of people, as international migration leads to stronger economic, political, and cultural linkages between geo-political units. Leaving the political and cultural perspective aside, migration has a critical impact on both, host and home economies. Migrants and their descendants are seen as bridges that can increase trade, investments, exchange of technology and know-how between home and host countries.
In a large scoping exercise, this paper reviews the existing literature on diaspora investment in all major disciplines, including international political economy, economics, business studies, transnational and migration studies and economic sociology. It critically examines what questions have been asked and what questions have been omitted. This also includes a discussion on the reasons for focusing on any aspect of diaspora investment and the relation between different lines of research and the emerging policy agenda in countries the world over to encourage investments by their emigrant and diaspora populations.
The paper highlights the critical contributions made by these lines of research and flags existing shortcomings in our understanding. The ambitious goal is to point toward an integrated and interdisciplinary research agenda for the next decade, that combines the questions and foci of political economists, economists, business scholars, policy analysts, transnational and migration studies and economic sociologists.

Author

• Daniel Naujoks, United Nations