The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) has the pleasure of inviting you to a migration seminar on:
‘Send More Money’
The Ambiguous Relations Between
African States and their Diasporas
Thursday, 18 March 2010, 14.00-16.00
Danish Institute for International Studies
Main Auditorium
Strandgade 71, ground floor, 1401 Copenhagen K
Background
Not many decades ago, citizens who left their motherland due to conflict, political disagreement or in search of a brighter future were considered traitors by their compatriots and the state. However, in recent years, this image seems to have changed as African states have increasingly focused on the development potential of what is increasingly called their diasporas. Rather than a liability, the diaspora is seen as being able to support the homeland in three crucial ways: by sending money and making investments, by applying the know-how that they have gained in their new country of residence to develop the homeland, and by acting as goodwill ambassadors wherever they are in the world. In this seminar, we explore this shift and the new interest that African states show in their citizens abroad.
But is the picture as glossy as sending states, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Bank paint it? The seminar addresses the various issues that are omitted in official discourse, and inquires into other sides of the story: What about the members of the diaspora who are not interested in supporting the state at ‘home’? What about those members of the diaspora who are not able to provide support because they do not have the means? And what is meant by the diaspora? Is it implicitly the well-educated elite in OECD countries – while the vast majority of African migrants are displaced within Africa?
This is the first seminar in the 2010 Migration Seminar Spring Series. For more information and seminar resource, see www.diis.dk/migrationseminars
Simon Turner is a Senior Researcher at DIIS. He has worked extensively on issues of conflict, identity, diasporas and displacement in the Great Lakes region. He is presently studying the ways in which the Rwandan and Burundian states are staging their diasporas as agents of peace-building, development and reconciliation.
Ben Page is Reader in Human Geography at University College London and Reviews Editor for the journal African Affairs. He has been working in Cameroon since 1995 and his recent research has been on the African diaspora and their continuing links with the African Continent, which led to the publication of the book Development and the African Diaspora (Zed Books, 2008) with Clare Mercer and Martin Evans.
Programme
14.00-14.10 Introduction
Nauja Kleist, Project Senior Researcher, DIIS
14.10-14.40 Staging Diasporas as Development Agents in
Post-genocide Rwanda – Removing Political Opposition
Simon Turner, Senior Researcher, DIIS
14.40-15.10 Amateur Development and the African State:
Hometown Associations in Cameroon and Tanzania
Ben Page, Reader, University College London
15.10-15.20 Coffee Break
15.20-16.00 Open Discussion
Chair: Nauja Kleist, Project Senior Researcher, DIIS
Practical Information
The seminar will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use below online registration form no later than Wednesday, 17 March 2010 at 12.00 noon. |
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