Bonding Collective? The moral infrastructure of hometown transantional networks (original) (raw)
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Hometown Organisations and Development Practices
IMI Wroking Papers Series, 2010
This working paper is part of a comparative research project looking at three immigrant groups (two North African Berber groups: the Moroccan Chleuhs and the Algerian Kabyles, and the Sikh Punjabis from India) residing in two receiving countries (France and the UK). This work seeks to explain the emergence of hometown associations committed to the development of their place of origin since the early 1990s. This research draws on a previous doctoral study on Moroccan Berber immigrants in France. Since then, I have extended this research to the other two groups. This choice has been underpinned by the prospect of comparing this first group with one which displays strong similarities (the Berber Kabyles from Algeria) and another which presents distinct features (the Sikh Punjabis). The three migrations have been spurred by British and French colonisation. They are three ethnic minority groups in their origin country which have become the forerunner of the Indian and North African migration systems. However, the conditions of their settlement in the arrival countries are obviously different. The Berber groups have predominantly remained working-class groups while the Punjabis have enjoyed a better economic integration into multicultural Britain. However, despite their common cultural, religious and historical features, Algerian Kabyles turn out to be far less committed to transnational practices than their Moroccan counterpart. Conversely, Moroccans and Indians both display a high level of engagement in cross-border development projects. Relying on Mill's laws of comparison, my intent is to uncover the common factors which have led these two distinct groups to engage in similar practices. Conversely, the Kabyle/Chleuh comparison is likely to give us the possibility of highlighting the obstacles which explain why some groups form developmental hometown groups while others do not. The analysis initially rests on the structure agency approach. However, the research has been heavily influenced by the theory of communicative action of Jürgen Habermas, which offers a better framework to address the coordination of collective actions. This has led me to unravel the symbolic framework which underpins the implementation of a development project, a symbolic framework which allows migrants to use remittances as a means of expression of who they are and how they position themselves within and toward the spaces of departure and arrival. This paper is the second of three working papers addressing the different layers of structural constraints which were conducive to the implementation of collective remittances of development: the moral-practical infrastructures, the agential structures and the institutional superstructures.
Collective Remittances and Integration: North African and North Indian Comparative Perspectives
This paper makes the case for a joint redefinition of the concepts of transnationalism and integration in a way that would allow a better combination. Transnationalism is here defined as a coping strategy for migrants who strive to manage their integration into two (or more) settings. Integration is commonly depicted as a multi-level process which combines a social embedding into a web of interpersonal or associational relations and a systemic embedding into wider economic or political systems. Next to these levels, this work highlights a third one, namely the identity integration of migrants who seek to maintain a balance between the poles of their identity. This conceptual framework is applied in order to analyse the emergence of collective practices of development among two North African groups in France (the Moroccan Chleuhs and the Algerian Kabyles) and one UK-based North Indian group (the Sikh Punjabis). It is shown that transnational development practices, in the form of collective remittances, constitute a matrix of identity integration for migrants who want to reinvent their identity of villager despite the transformations induced by their stay abroad. However, the success of their actual engagement into cross-border practices largely depends on the effectiveness of their systemic and social integration.
The extent to which migrants participate in development projects has gained increasing prominence in the field of migration studies. In keeping with the interest of national and international institutions which promote the involvement of migrants in the development of their home countries, social research has begun to question how this phenomenon has grown (on the migrant or transnational civil society level), the nature of the organisations that drive such actions (transnational organisations) and the implications on the latter (transnational development). Many studies have seen migrant organisations as new actors in the transnational field; when not seen as emerging players, they are perceived as figures that can shape the transnational field. In order to assess the impact of migrant associations in debates of transnationalism, this article investigates the characteristics of migrant organizations located in Spain, as well as their practices aimed at development in the countries o...
New Diversities, 16 (2): 21-37, 2014
The extent to which migrants participate in development projects has gained increasing prominence in the field of migration studies. In keeping with the interest of national and international institutions which promote the involvement of migrants in the development of their home countries, social research has begun to question how this phenomenon has grown (on the migrant or transnational civil society level), the nature of the organisations that drive such actions (transnational organisations) and the implications on the latter (transnational development). Many studies have seen migrant organisations as new actors in the transnational field; when not seen as emerging players, they are perceived as figures that can shape the transnational field. In order to assess the impact of migrant associations in debates of transnationalism, this article investigates the characteristics of migrant organizations located in Spain, as well as their practices aimed at development in the countries of origin.
Transnationalism and Development: The Example of Moroccan Migrant Networks
The transnational paradigm is now a dominant approach in migration studies. This approach is rooted in the belief that the dense mobility of migrants has created social fields that differ significantly from the sedentary societies bounded by state borders. From the 1980s, transnational practices of migrants have been perceived as challenging integration dynamics and boundary construction. The analysis of development projects carried out by Moroccan migrants for the benefit of their home villages tells a very different story. This case study exemplifies the fact that transnationalism is rooted in migrant/non-migrant relationships. Moroccan transnational development networks are shaped not only by the expectations of the home villages but also by the co-funding policies implemented by different stakeholders. The case of the French co-development policy is examined here.
This paper explores the links between migration and development emphasized by international organizations. This discourse which encourages migrants to work, at their level, towards the development of their country has become consensual. But if one looks closely, these natural links seem fragile, both in international migration policies and social experiments of migration. By studying the case of the Togolese migration, this article shows that the institutionalization of this new paradigm is weak and that the recent implementation of migration policies in Togo just seems to be an answer to the requirements of international partners. More than a real programmatic issue, the role of the diaspora in development becomes an obligatory resource in negotiations with sponsors. Then, if the discourse on development began to emerge among migrants themselves, it is not necessarily synonymous with the growth of a strong culture of transnational or diasporic commitment. Few associative structures are actually created and migration trajectories and histories are first and foremost thought of in an individual or familial frame, far from social imperatives of community development. Finally, if we analyze the more general logic of these migrations in Togo, while they seem to foster identity transformations they may primarily function as a driving force behind reproduction of social inequalities in the country of origin.
2015
Since the 1990s, governments of migrant sending and receiving countries, policy institutes, the United Nations and allied international financial institutions, and migration researchers in the academy have shown a heightened interest in the role that diasporas can play in the development of the Global South. As government responsibility to social welfare recedes and as humanitarian aid shrinks, these stakeholders have looked toward the wealth offered by diasporas. The resultant discourse of diaspora and development, the dissertation argues, is changing the meaning of the discursive construction of "diaspora" in its articulation with the concurrent construct of "development". This presents scholars with new challenges in studying diaspora and transnationalism. The expansion of who gets to be counted as diaspora and its articulation with newly extended diasporic citizenship limits the nature of citizenship to the performative and to the exclusive domain of giving. Accordingly, the study examines the communicative and relational practices of Association for India's Development (AID), a 1000-volunteer-strong migrant Indian non-profit organization in the United States, to critique and expand the diaspora and development discourse. Through an extended case study of AID's practice and performance of citizenship, this study makes contributions to theories about the space of 'home' and its relation to the practice of politics; migrant presence and performance of citizenship in the Global North; diasporic interventions in the discourse of development; and strategic mobilizing for broad-based social justice issues. First, the dissertation unpacks the meaning-making practices that AID volunteers associate with the construct 'development', and demonstrates how the volunteers' v discourse of "development as sustainability" challenges notions of charity and the brain metaphor trafficking in policy reports and scholarship. The study then examines the treatment of diasporic imaginings of home in theory and migration policy, juxtaposed with AID's practices related to India, arguing that practices of deconstructing home/nation allow this organization to center diasporic privilege rather than loss. This allows for less common alliance-building practices with populations from historicallymarginalized religious, caste and class backgrounds and a centering of marginalized voices within multiple diasporic homes. The dissertation also examines annual die-ins by AID's Austin chapter, staged in solidarity with survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984 that complicates the notion of presence in theorizations of transformation in new forms of citizenship. The study finally takes an ethnographic peek into an education project that used to be supported by AID in India. The backstage organizing work studied, suggests that what seems like a single-issue movement strategically employs universal discourses of 'quality education' for organizing multiple publics. The study required multi-sited critical ethnographic fieldwork in the United States and in India, participant observation, in-depth interviews, and rhetorical/discourse analyses of AID's practices. The study offers a people-centered exploration of diaspora engagement with social development, which is difficult to grasp solely through research informed by macro-level and quantitative data. Overall, this work complicates the monolithic understanding of development in current research on diaspora and development, demonstrating that local and transnational actors both participate in, and challenge the development discourse to communicatively and relationally address issues of social development and transnational environmental justice. vi