Who is a philanthropist? The (ignored) philanthropic impulse of immigrants and migrants in the U.S.

Abstract

This article folds into the limited conversations about migration in the field of public administration what is diaspora philanthropy, that is, philanthropic giving by immigrants and migrants. It confronts taken-for-granted assumptions about where in the philanthropic giving “equation” immigrants and migrants lie. This article provides empirical evidence from migrant civil society and reconsiders two narratives: (1) immigrants and migrants as takers and (2) philanthropy as an elite practice only. It seeks to bridge conversations about migration and philanthropy in the context of public administration scholarship. Using the illustrative case of Mexican migrant organizations and their leaders, the article probes the following questions: Who are migrant philanthropists? What is migrant civil society supporting? What motivates migrant philanthropists? The article argues with evidence that immigrants and migrants in the U.S. are philanthropically engaged. The findings suggest that while the challenges of migration in the field are important, migration has other consequences and perhaps even has untapped potential.

Keywords:

• immigrants
• migrant civil society
• migration
• philanthropy
• Mexico

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited from good conversations with colleague David Campbell and the author is grateful to him. The author wants to thank all the research participants for their willingness to share with me their experiences in hometown associations. This research was supported by the U.S. Fulbright Program and The U.S.-Mexico Commission for Educational Exchange (COMEXUS).

Data are stored with the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As my findings corroborate, there are many terms and understandings of these terms in the sphere of migration. I study diaspora philanthropy and I tend to use the terms of immigrant, migrant and diaspora interchangeably, representing similar phenomena in the context of this study in particular.

2 The Mexican case is a part of a larger comparative research project that includes diaspora philanthropy in Mexico, Colombia and India. To date, I have conducted 63 interviews about diaspora philanthropy across the country cases. For the comprehensive project, I have over 176 observations of organizational meetings and events as well as site visits to projects. I have collected more than 256 documents – both in English and Spanish.

3 All interview names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Comisión México-Estados Unidos para el Intercambio Educativo y Cultural.