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Diaspora strategies: Actors, members, and spaces
Author(s) -
Cohen Nir
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/gec3.12308
Subject(s) - diaspora , popularity , citizenship , state (computer science) , constructive , political science , salient , sociology , law , process (computing) , algorithm , politics , computer science , operating system
Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the engagement of migrant‐sending countries with their diaspora populations. Alternately referred to as diaspora strategies, diaspora engagement policies, diaspora policies, sending state strategies, or extraterritorial citizenship strategies, these systematic sets of policy initiatives were enthusiastically embraced by a broad range of southern and northern countries. The popularity of strategies as a policy tool has been accompanied by a proliferating social scientific literature. The current article reviews the quickly growing body of knowledge on diaspora strategies. Its primary objective is to underscore the distinct geographic contributions to the topic, including the territorial logic, which undergirds strategies, the scales and sites at which they are conceived and enacted, and the sociospatial boundaries, which they give rise to. The article identifies 4 main themes in the literature, namely, types and motivations, (dis)membering, states and other actors, and spatiotemporalities, discusses the salient contributions made within each, identifies their critical lacunas, and, where possible, makes constructive suggestions for a prospective research agenda.