Hometown associations and the micropolitics of transnational community development

ABSTRACT

This article argues that a closer inspection of the historical trajectories and the evolving micropolitics of hometown associations (HTAs) expands our understanding of how community development is practised across borders. Drawing from six years of ethnographic, multi-sited fieldwork carried out in the Dominican Republic and the United States, focusing on the experience of three Dominican HTAs, the evidence presented demonstrates how working dynamics and decision-making responsibilities between internal, international, and non-migrant HTA members shift over time, and identifies the organisational strategies employed to achieve transnational cooperation for community development. The ethnographic data also highlight and explain how communal legacies based on home country agrarian traditions laid the groundwork for future transnational development practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Hometown associations
• migration and development
• migrant transnationalism

Acknowledgements

This research would not have been possible without the generous support of the Dominican men and women who warmly invited me into their communities and homes, patiently told their histories, and kindly shared their vast knowledge. Thanks to Nalini Lamba-Nieves for helping to edit earlier versions of this article, to the wonderful colleagues and friends in the United States and Puerto Rico who provided much-needed intellectual insights, and to the three anonymous reviewers who provided useful critiques and helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A notable exception is Burgess’ recent work (2016) on societal accountability stemming from HTA involvement in Mexico’s 3 × 1 programme.

2. In order to protect the identities of the interviewees and other study participants, I have used pseudonyms. Unless otherwise specified, all interviews were conducted in Spanish. All of the translations from Spanish are mine.

3. Doner (2009) employs a similar methodological rationale in his study of Thailand’s development experience.

4. Residents of the Baní region – where all the towns studied are located – commonly refer to themselves as banilejos.

5. Insights provided by the Dominican sociologist Dagoberto Tejeda, interviewed in 2012.