fostering dialogue between diaspora strategies

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FOSTERING DIALOGUE BETWEEN

DIASPORA STRATEGIES

Professors Mark Boyle and Rob Kitchin

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Diaspora Strategy Workshop, January 26th-28th 2009

Sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland .



INTRODUCTION TO THE WORKSHOP

• CONTEXT AND PURPOSE OF THEWORKSHOP

• MOVING THE AGENDA FORWARD…

Institutional design of strategies

Emerging questionsResearch practices

• STRUCTURE OF THE WORKSHOP



The Task Force (2002)

The Irish Abroad Unit(2004)

Towards a diaspora

strategy for Ireland (Boyleand Kitchin 2008)

Welfare and citizenship

PhilanthropySocial and Cultural

Return Migrants

Business Networks

April 2007, Dermot Ahern TD and

Minister for Foreign Affairs

‘The time is right to review our

approach to our community across

the globe and to develop a strategy

for the years ahead. Maintaining

and enhancing our links with our

communities abroad has been a particular priority for the government.

has never been fixed, our attitudes

and our capacity to engage with the

Irish abroad have changed with our

nation’s fortunes. We need toregularly reshape our policies in this

key area.’



International Vista :

A rough genealogy of Business Strategies

From late 1960s : The ‘brain drain’ the Johnson/Patinkin debate

• First generation strategies : Encourage repatriation. UNDP

Transfer of Knowledge Through Expatriate Nationals(TOKTEN)

• Second generation strategies : Source tangible resources from

the diaspora

• Third generation strategies : Source intangible help from the

diaspora

COMPARING STRATEGIES AT SOURCE



COMPARING STRATEGIES AT SOURCE

World Bank Knowledge for Development Programme

• Global Workshop on Migration of Talent andDiasporas of the Highly Skilled, Buenos Aires ,Argentina, 2005.

• How to Leverage Talent Abroad to Benefit HomeCountries? Experience and Results Agenda of Diaspora and Venture Capital Networks,Washington, DC. USA, 2007.

• Mobilizing the African Diaspora for DevelopmentInitiative, Washington DC, USA 2007.

• Accessing Global Knowledge Workshop, New

Delhi, India, 2008.



Diaspora Networks and the

International Migration of

Skills: How Countries Can

Draw on Their Talent Abroad

Yevgeny Kuznetsov 2006



COMPARING STRATEGIES AT DESTINATIONS

CHINESE, INDIAN, AND TAIWANESE DIASPORAS

IN SILICON VALLEY

AnnaLee Saxenian

Dean of the School and

Professor (School and

Dept. of City and RegionalPlanning, University of

California Berekely)



PURPOSES OF THE WORKSHOP

• To further develop ‘networks’ of policy makers,researchers and academics, for improved sharing of

practice

• To foster dialogue not policy transfer

• To update developments in diaspora policy and

thinking

• To bring new countries and new people into the

conversation

• To reflect upon possible ways to move the

policy and research agendas forward



• THE STATE AND THE MARKET

• BUSINESS AND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

• STRATEGY AND HANDS OFF

• MUSCULAR AND LIGHT INCUBATION

• CENTRALISED AND DECENTRALISED

ARE WE THINKING IN TERMS OF TOP DOWN AND

BOTTOM UP AND IS THIS HELPFUL ?

INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN OFDIASPORA STRATEGY



Emerging areas of concern

• Recognising varieties of diaspora/talent

• The practical and political importance of

incorporating ‘affinity’ diasporas

• New forms of mobility and diaspora strategies

• The scaling of diaspora strategies: supra-national,national, sub-national.

• Credit crunch and diaspora strategies



RESEARCH PRACTICES

How is research being commissioned, stored, ingestedinto policy and circulated (states, policy practitioners,

researchers, academics, world bank) ?

• How are research needs being identified and whatought to be the priorities when commissioningresearch ?

• What kinds of comparative research for what kinds of ends?

• What does it mean to talk about evidence basedpolicy, say for example in relation to measuringimpacts?



WELCOME

• Welcome and thanks for travelling so far.• Pleased to have assembled leading academic,

researchers and research managers, and senior level public officials with about 10 countries

represented.• Introduction round table

• Fire Safety Route and House Keeping Admin

•Purpose of this opening session (leave outline of the workshop to my talk)

• Reintroduce participants at pertinent points in thetalk



• Population circa 4.2 million

• 3.1 million Irish citizens (passport holders) live overseas

• Of these, 1.2 million are Irish born

• Approx. 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry

Changing contexts for Ireland’s diaspora strategy

1. The rise of the Celtic Tiger 2. The peace process in the North

3. Secularism and declining levels of social capital

Context for an Irish diaspora strategy



A TYPOLOGY OF DIASPORA STRATEGIES

Characteristics

of diaspora

Unfavourable

Country

Conditions

Moderate

Country

Conditions

Favourable

Country

Conditions

Sophisticated

Diaspora

Networks

Armenia,

Bangladesh,

Sri Lanka

El Salvador,

India, Vietnam

China, South

Korea, Taiwan,

Ireland,

Scotland

Emergingdiaspora

networks

Colombia,Nigeria,

Russian

Federation,

Ukraine

Brazil, Mexico,Pakistan, South

Africa,

Transition

economies

Croatia, Chile, Hungary,

Slovenia,

Malaysia,

Thailand

fostering dialogue between diaspora strategies

Documents