The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Background

Diasporas are one of the most prominent and controversial manifestations of increased globalisation. The connection between migrants and people who have stayed at home has profound effects on societies in the country of origin and the country of destination, as well as on the diasporas themselves.

Diaspora members may spread progressive attitudes, or they may become enclaves of intolerance. Diasporas are feared and loved, appearing both as traitors and champions. We identify three fundamental dynamics relating to the formation, maintenance, and impacts of diasporas:

• Connecting: the way that diasporas create networks encompassing those back home, others in diaspora and, more widely, their imagined communities based on co-ethnicity or other identities.
• Contesting: the contradictory processes of inclusion of diasporas within and exclusion from territorially-bound communities, and the emergence of potentially conflicting identities.
• Converging: the way in which diasporic communities de-emphasise their origins and blend with indigenous or other migrant communities to create new social formations, cultures and practices.

Objectives

We aim to integrate humanities and social science perspectives in order to investigate the social, economic, political and cultural impacts of these three dynamics of diaspora. We will examine why, how, where and when particular impacts arise from particular trajectories, and who initiates and experiences these impacts.

Approach

The research programme will be structured around the three dynamics, with a lead researcher coordinating a cluster of four research projects:

Connecting (Nicholas Van Hear):

1. Diaspora engagement in war-torn societies (Nicholas Van Hear)
2. Diasporas and emigration states (Alan Gamlen)
3. Diasporas in Africa: an intra-continental perspective (Oliver Bakewell)
4. Transnationalism, trust and trade: the Somali diaspora and Nairobi’s ‘Little Mogadiscio’ (David Anderson/Neil Carrier)

Contesting (Michael Keith):

1. Religion, separation and exclusion in the diasporas of East London (Michael Keith/Ben Gidley)
2. Diasporas as threats to global security (Alexander Betts)
3. Migration regimes and stateless diasporas in the EU (Roger Zetter/Ferdinando Sigona)
4. Diasporic youth, unemployment and the rise of right wing politics in UK cities (Linda McDowell)

Converging (Robin Cohen):

1. Diasporas and creolization: complementary or contradictory? (Robin Cohen)
2. Multinational families, ‘creolized’ practices and new identities: Euro-Senegalese cases (Helene Neveu Kringelbach)
3. Converging cultures: the Hadrami diaspora in the Indian Ocean (Iain Walker)

Methodology

We will used a mixed methods approach. We will establish benchmark research designs that integrate the synchronic and the diachronic, the quantitative and the qualitative, the comparative and the historical, the case study and the grand generalization.

Dissemination

Our dissemination programme will involve two main elements:

1. An innovative communications programme that will draw on and feed into the activities of diaspora communities themselves (including photo exhibitions, Podcasts, Facebook, newsletters and magazines etc.)
2. An extensive programme of conferences and publications using leading intellectual channels (including a series of three international conferences held at IMI, and a dedicated ‘Impact of Diasporas’ working paper series).

Staff

The co-applicants are:

• Professor Robin Cohen, Director, International Migration Institute (IMI) (Principal Investigator)
• Professor David Anderson, Director, African Studies Centre
• Professor Michael Keith, Director, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)
• Professor Linda McDowell, Director, St John’s College Research Centre
• Professor Roger Zetter, Director, Refugee Studies Centre

Other researchers include:

• Dr Oliver Bakewell, Senior Research Officer, International Migration Institute (IMI)
• Dr Alexander Betts, Department of Politics and International Relations
• Dr Neil Carrier, African Studies Centre
• Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Refugee Studies Centre
• Dr Alan Gamlen, ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Migration Institute (IMI)
• Dr Ben Gidley, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)
• Dr Jane Garnett, Faculty of History
• Dr Alana Harris, Darby Fellow in History, Lincoln College
• Dr Helene Neveu Kringelbach, African Studies Centre
• Dr Ferdinando Sigona, Refugee Studies Centre
• Dr Nicholas Van Hear, Deputy Director, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)
• Dr Iain Walker, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Funders

We are grateful to The Leverhulme Trust for funding this project, which will run from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2015.

For more information please visit the Project Website