From 'unhappy marriage' to 'living-apart-together'? Diaspora Inclusion

Worldwide, diaspora organisations are engaged in a wide range of transnational activities, in order to enhance human, social and economic development in their region of origin – and far beyond. The scholarly opinion on the potential of diaspora organisations to stimulate development is generally positive. More critical is the literature about Migration & Development policies. Efforts to engage the diaspora undertaken within this framework fail to harness ‘the potential of the diaspora’, and some scholars even refer to the migration and development combination as an ‘unhappy marriage’. In this article I will highlight three issues that are at stake: the huge diversity among diaspora organisations; the existing myth regarding funding of transnational activities of diaspora organisations; and the limitations of the institutional framework for engaging diaspora organisations in development.