Migrants as Peacebuilding and Development Partners: Diaspora Engagement Theory and Practice in the Netherlands

Since the turn of the millennium a surge of interest for the ways in which diasporas can influence development and peacebuilding processes in their countries of origin has been animating the so-called migration-development debate. At a policy level, governments, international institutions and NGOs have increasingly acknowledged the important contributions that diasporas can make to both development and peacebuilding. Based on this recognition, ‘diaspora engagement’ has come prominently to the fore as a major policy issue. Many programmes have been set up that hinge on the ideal of migrants as partners who can complement the development industry’s own efforts to promote development and peace, and announce significant transformations in development and peacebuilding thinking and practice. This enthusiasm in the policy sphere has triggered abundant scholarly research, which has focused on the contributions made by diasporas to transformation processes in their homelands, and on the activities and modes of collective organisation adopted by diaspora groups in their countries of residence. Considerably less attention, instead, has been dedicated by research to analysing the ways in which mainstream development actors have reached out to these new players and the implications for the development industry as well as for development practice. Based on insight into the case of the Netherlands, this chapter sets out to fill this gap. A closer examination of diaspora engagement policies and practices shows that, rather than representing a truly innovative shift, current trends are greatly in line with general advancements made in development and peacebuilding theory on the role and position of civil society in participatory approaches.

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Roy Huijsmans