The contribution of UK-based diasporas to development and poverty reduction
A report by the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford for the Department for International Development April 2004
COMPAS Report Team: Nicholas Van Hear, Frank Pieke and Steven Vertovec With the assistance of: Anna Lindley, Barbara Jettinger and Meera Balarajan
Summary:
This report explores the actual and potential role of UK-based diasporas in development and poverty reduction in their homelands. Included under the rubric ‘poverty reduction’ are conflict prevention, conflict reduction and post-conflict reconstruction, as these are all central to poverty reduction in countries with diasporas which have a substantial presence in the UK.
Private remittances by individuals constitute the most sizeable and tangible form of diaspora contribution to development and poverty reduction. However, this report focuses on collective transfers of various kinds by diasporic associations for development and/or welfare purposes, as well as upon broader forms of collective support among diaspora non-governmental organisations, churches and other bodies, such as social and political lobbying.
Six UK-based diaspora groups are examined: Somalis, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Indians, Sri Lankan Tamils, and Chinese. The cases represent African and Asian examples of interest to DfID and encompass a range of conditions, from countries in or emerging from conflict to more stable low income and lower middle income countries.
Many governments of migrant-sending countries have recognised the potential of their citizens abroad in recent years, and international development agencies are beginning to do likewise. Migrants’ incentives to participate in home country development or reconstruction depend on the extent to which they feel they have a stake in their home nation-states as well as in the countries that host them. With such factors in mind, and in partnership with developing countries and diasporas, DfID and other development agencies could work towards:
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