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The Microfoundations of Diaspora Politics examines the various actors within and beyond the state that participate in the design and implementation of diaspora policies, as well as the mechanisms through which are constructed by governments, political parties, diaspora entrepreneurs, or international organisations

Politics of the North Korean Diaspora examines how authoritarian security concerns shape global diaspora politics. Empirically, it traces the recent emergence of a North Korean diaspora - a globally-dispersed population of North Korean émigrés - and argues that the non-democratic nature of the DPRK homeland regime fundamentally shapes diasporic politics. Pyongyang perceives the diaspora as a threat to regime security, and attempts to dissuade emigration, de-legitimate diasporic voices, and deter or disrupt diasporic political activity, including through extraterritorial violence and transnational repression. This, in turn, shapes the North Korean diaspora's perceptions of citizenship and patterns of diasporic political engagement: North Korean émigrés have internalized many host country norms, particularly the civil and participatory dimensions of democratic citizenship, and émigrés have played important roles in both host-country and global politics. This Element provides new empirical evidence on the North Korean diaspora; demonstrates that regime type is an important, understudied factor shaping transnational and diasporic politics; and contributes to our understanding of comparative authoritarianism's global impact.

A key aspect of diaspora research in international relations should be on the ontological politics of naming migrants, travelers, nomads, guest workers, minorities, their relations, and their politics "diasporic." Academic debates about the definitions of diaspora are endless; not only is this quest largely a waste of time, but it marginalizes a more important issuenamely, the politicality of defining a population or a set of relations as "diasporic." I draw here on the notion of "ontological politics," as developed within actor network theory by John Law and Annemarie Mol (Mol 1999). In her work on clinical practices, Mol demonstrates that a disease such as anemia is not a single reality. It is performed in at least two different ways that depend on the methods through which it is diagnosed and therefore "made real": (i) the analysis of external symptoms by a doctor and (ii) the analysis of hemoglobin levels in a laboratory. What Mol shows is that these are not just different ways at getting at the same preexisting phenomenon but rather that the two methods produce two broadly similar yet distinct realities. Adapted from the source document.

Singh examines the complex links that connect the history of the Sikhs in colonial India both to the Khalistani movement and to diasporic politics in multicultural Britain and the United States today. He reviews two books, The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of the Sikh Diaspora by Brian Axel (Duke UP, 2001) and Tony Ballantyne's Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World (Duke UP, 2006). Singh praises these texts for breaking "with the trend of producing case studies of individual or highly localized collective experiences in an attempt to grapple with the cultural interconnections that are foundational to the Sikh diaspora" and for highlighting "the effects of the performative enunciation of cultural claims." But he also argues that the sociohistorical structures that allow for such articulation are less of a concern in these analyses than they should have been. In the course of his rich analysis, Singh argues that both Axel and Ballantyne anachronistically project the current identity concerns of the Sikh diaspora, embodied in the ambivalent figure of Maharajah Duleep Singh, backward onto the history of the colonialism in Punjab as well as onto the subsequent rise of Indian nationalism, to ill effect. He joins Axel in asking what constitutes a diaspora, and he examines the usefulness of Ballantyne's claim that the continued emphasis on Khalistan in Sikh studies effaces the "politics of the everyday," the more mundane but equally important cross-cultural dilemmas that confront diasporic Sikhs—an observation that has a more general application in diaspora studies as a whole.

[D]iaspora politics can be viewed as not only enhancing or challenging state power in particular cases, but also contributing to new forms of global identity politics that transcend state institutions.

International audience Long distance nationalism is the dominant perspective in transnational studies. It depicts the diaspora primarily as 'conflict-makers' bent on advancing radical view points on homeland socio-political conflicts because of the unique decoupling of action from its consequences. Recent works have shifted the focus away from this negative image and have shown, through in-depth case studies, the constructive dimension of the transnational engagement of the diaspora. Two of these are the crucial role remittance plays in the development process in the country of origin and the peace building role of the diaspora in conflict and post conflict settings. The paper seeks to contribute to the diaspora-peace building literature through a case study of the Ethiopian Muslim diaspora in Europe and North America. Key terms: Ethiopian Muslims diaspora; long-distance nationalism; diaspora and peacebuilding; inclusive citizenship

International audience ; Long distance nationalism is the dominant perspective in transnational studies. It depicts the diaspora primarily as 'conflict-makers' bent on advancing radical view points on homeland socio-political conflicts because of the unique decoupling of action from its consequences. Recent works have shifted the focus away from this negative image and have shown, through in-depth case studies, the constructive dimension of the transnational engagement of the diaspora. Two of these are the crucial role remittance plays in the development process in the country of origin and the peace building role of the diaspora in conflict and post conflict settings. The paper seeks to contribute to the diaspora-peace building literature through a case study of the Ethiopian Muslim diaspora in Europe and North America. Key terms: Ethiopian Muslims diaspora; long-distance nationalism; diaspora and peacebuilding; inclusive citizenship

Economic turmoil and war constitute the main engines fuelling migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1980. The development of migration is accompanied by remittance transfers that impact on the country. The most common use of remittances are to satisfy basic needs and fund specific family events that can include buying land, house construction and opening businesses along with consumption (education, health…). The direct transfer of material goods, such as cars and medical & IT materials, also plays a major role. While most remittances are not used to cover investments; funding education and family wellbeing can support growth and development.