Organised diaspora networks and homeland peacebuilding: the Bosnian world diaspora network as a potential development actor

Abstract

International donors and development INGOs are increasingly recognising the potential contributions that Diasporas can make to developing countries. However, traditional peacebuilding literature has largely ignored the potential of Diasporas to contribute to post conflict reconstruction in the homeland. This article, therefore, assesses this potential through an examination of the Bosnian World Diaspora Network, created after the recent dispersal of refugees due to the conflict in Bosnia. It concludes that the relationship between, on the one hand, diaspora activities and, on the other, armed conflict and war recovery is considerably less straightforward than has been supposed. However, it does suggest a number of ways in which donors/host lands could assist the coordination of development agencies and diaspora networks.

Notes

 1. Lindenberg and Bryant, Going Global: Transforming Relief and Development NGOs.

 2. Dichter, Despite Good Intentions: Why Development Assistance to the Third World has Failed.

 3. Belloni, ‘Peacebuilding at the Local Level: Refugee Return to Prijedor’, 437.

 4. See Van Hear, New Diasporas. The mass exodus, dispersal and regrouping of migrant communities, 6.

 5. Zack-Williams and Mohan, ‘Editorial: Africa, the African Diaspora & Development’, 205; see also Safran, ‘Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return’.

 6. Shain, King and Melvin, ‘Diaspora politics: ethnic linkages, foreign policy, and security in Eurasia’.

 7. Byman et al., ‘Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements’.

 8. Collier et al., ‘Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy’, 85.

 9. Berdal, ‘Beyond greed and grievance—and not too soon’, 694.

10. See Zunzer, ‘Diaspora Communities and Civil Conflict Transformation’; Kent, ‘Diaspora Power: Network Contributions to Peacebuilding and the Transformation of War Economies’

11. Shain and Barth, ‘Diasporas and International Relations Theory’, 450.

12. Ibid., 450.

13. Mohan and Zack-Williams, ‘Globalisation from Below: Conceptualising the Role of the African Diasporas in Africa's Development’, 211.

14. Orozco, ‘Mexican Hometown Associations and Development Opportunities’.

15. Gundel, ‘The Migration-Development Nexus: Somalia Case Study’.

16. Gundel, ‘The Migration-Development Nexus, 269–277. Such remittances are part of a coping economy: economic strategies that work to enable a beleaguered population to survive the privations of war and post-war economic scarcity.

17. Ahmed, ‘Remittances and Their Economic Impact in Post-war Somaliland’.

18. Jazayery, ‘The Migration-Development Nexus: Afghanistan Case Study’, 242.

19. Van Hear, New Diasporas; Sheffer, Diaspora Politics. At Home Abroad.

20. Sheffer, Diaspora Politics, 190.

21. See Wellman, ‘Structural analysis: from method and metaphor to theory and substance’; Tilly, The Vendor.

22. Brinkerhoff, ‘Digital Diaspora, Refining a Discourse’, 411; Shain and Barth, ‘Diasporas and International Relations Theory’, 450.

23. Uduku, ‘The Socio-Economic Basis of a Diaspora Community’.

24. Sheffer, Diaspora Politics, 182; Anderson, ‘The Internet's Two Histories and Role of the Diaspora in Bringing Arabia Online’; Castells, The Rise of Network Society; Kazanjian and Kassabian, ‘Mass Mediating Diaspora’.

25. Orozco, ‘Mexican Hometown Associations and Development Opportunities’.

26. A follow-on study will compare activities at the level of individuals, examining remittances, investment in housing, business investment, tourism, etc. in the same case study country.

27. Van Hear, New Diasporas.

28. Cohen, Global Diasporas. An Introductioni.

29. Ibid., 180.

30. Gold, Refugee Communities: A Comparative Field Study.

31. Kelly, ‘Bosnian Refugees in Britain: Questioning Community’, 43.

32. Ranganathan, ‘Nurturing a Nation on the Net: The Case of Tamil Eelam’.

33. Interview B-11; www.bihstudenti.com.

34. See Renfro and Deckro, ‘A Social Network Analysis of the Iranian Government’.

35. Sheffer, Diaspora Politics.

36. Haber, July–August 2001, 30.

37. Haber, Jan/Feb 2000, 22.

38. Haber, Feb–Mar 2003, 23,34.

39. Radke, ‘From Gifts to Taxes: The mobilisation of Tamil and Eritrean diaspora in intrastate warfare’.

40. See, e.g. King and Melvin, ‘Diaspora politics’; Shain, Marketing the American Creed Abroad: Diasporas in the U.S. and Their Homelands.

41. Heimerl, quotes a figure of 500,000. Heimerl, ‘The Return of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: from Coercion to Sustainability?’

42. Interview B-02. B-01 to B-15 interviews conducted with Network leaders 2004–2005.

43. Interview B-04.

44. Haber, the UK Bosnia Network magazine (bi-monthly), Jan–Feb 2000.

45. Interview B-09.

46. Jazayery, ‘The Migration-Development Nexus: Afghanistan Case Study’, 244.

47. Shain and Barth, ‘Diasporas and International Relations Theory’, 451.

48. Mohan and Zack-Williams, ‘Globalisation from Below’.

49. Shain and Barth, ‘Diasporas and International Relations Theory’, 451.

50. Brinkerhoff, ‘Digital Diasporas’.

51. Bolt, ‘Looking to the Diaspora: The Overseas Chinese and China's Economic Development’, 488.

52. Interviews B-07; B-08.

53. Interviews B-09; I-06.

54. Haber, Jan–Feb 2000, 23.

55. Ibid.

56. Sheffer, Diaspora Politics, 188.

57. Trager, Yoruba Hometown community, identity and development.

58. Interviews B-02-B-04.

59. Wesselingh and Vaulerin, Raw Memory: Prijedor, Laboratory of Ethnic Cleansing.

60. Although see Gillespie et al., on investment. Gillespie et al., ‘Diaspora interest in homeland investment’.

61. Berdal, ‘Beyond greed and grievance, 695.

62. Kelly, ‘Bosnian Refugees in Britain’.

63. Bose, ‘The Bosnian State a Decade after Dayton’.

64. Brinkerhoff, ‘Digital Diasporas’, 398.

65. Ibid., 400.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory Kent

Gregory Kent lectures in IR and Human Rights at Roehampton University. He previously held the ESRC-funded fellowship on the Transformation of War Economies project during which his work focused on Diaspora contributions to peace building. His book, ‘Framing War and Genocide: British policy and media reaction to the War in Bosnia’ (Hampton Press, NJ) was published in 2006. He can be contacted on [email protected]