Suchergebnisse

This thesis addresses the issue of political representation of emigrants in their states of origin. Focusing on the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region, it analyzes the institutional mechanisms by which homelands allow their emigrants to participate in their institutions and asks why states of origin have adopted such mechanisms. While the core of the thesis is empirical, there is a normative interest that guides the thesis: should emigrants be represented in their states of origin? And if so, how much presence shall be allowed from abroad? The theoretical framework of the thesis builds upon the literature on political representation and the literature on political transnationalism. The dissertation follows a cumulative logic developed over four journal articles that provide the empirical basis needed to answer the main research questions. These four papers combine different sources of information (e.g. legal texts, legislative speeches, and interviews) and a diverse set of methods (e.g. quantitative text analysis, regression analyses, and case studies). The findings reveal that emigrants are present in their homelands through two main mechanisms of representation. The first is the legislative, which facilitates the participation from abroad in homeland legislative elections by either voting or by running as candidates. Emigrants can run as candidates from districts located within the territorial boundaries of the states of origin (i.e. general representation) or through external districts (i.e. special representation). The second mechanism is the consultative one, which enables the representation of non-resident citizens through emigrant advisory boards. Both have been adopted in the LAC region. Yet, states have developed different 'systems' of emigrant representation which range from the total absence of emigrant political representation to an integrated model that combines both mechanisms of representation and maximizes the possibilities of political representation for non-resident citizens. Moving ...

The legislatures of Colombia and Ecuador have reserved seats for their non-resident citizens (emigrants). This paper analyses the relationship between the formal, descriptive, and substantive dimensions of emigrant representation in their homeland legislatures. The analysis compares the legislative work of emigrant MPs (EMPs) with the legislative work of non-emigrant MPs (NEMPs) in Ecuador and Colombia. It presents a mixed methods approach that combines a quantitative text analysis based on an original dataset -composed of 35,446 floor speeches- with in-depth interviews with six EMPs. The results show that emigrant-related issues are significantly more salient in the legislature of Ecuador and Colombia suggesting that the effect of emigrant-reserved seats is correlated to the size of the external district. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that EMPs have a "mixed agenda" composed by emigrant and domestic-related issues. Finally, the article shows that the probability of classifying a speech as emigrant-related increases when it is given by an EMP and not a NEMP. This effect is stronger in Ecuador than in Colombia. All in all, the article shows evidence that configurations that allocate several EMPs are more efficient in achieving substantive representation.

Este trabajo, partiendo del marco brindado por los estudios sobre transnacionalismo y representación política, investiga dos de los mecanismos institucionales que 22 Estados de América Latina y el Caribe han diseñado para incorporar en su proceso político a sus emigrantes - la reserva de puestos en cámaras legislativas y los consejos consultivos. El análisis revela que únicamente la mitad de los Estados de la muestra cuentan con algún mecanismo de representación institucional de emigrantes.

AbstractSpecialized indices of immigration, immigrant integration policies, and citizenship policies are expanding the confines of our knowledge in the field of comparative migration policies. Emigration policies, however, have garnered less attention. We address this gap in the literature, by using a new data set to create an index that measures contemporary emigration regulations of 32 polities across three regions in the world (Asia, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean). Based on this exploratory exercise, we examine the assumptions about emigration controls and policies being a matter of the past or belonging to non‐democratic regimes. We find that emigration policies go beyond the mere regulation of the right to exit. Different components across a continuum from restriction to encouragement of emigration suggest different rationales and purposes of states, even if the hardest forms of emigration control, such as exit bans are absent in the studied sample.

The scholarship on political transnationalism aims to understand how and why emigrants keep relevant political ties with their state of origin as well as cultivate new ones with their country of residence. Through the multiple formal shapes that such political ties can adopt, much has been written on the electoral channel, neglecting other important formal mechanisms of political participation from abroad. In this short paper we contribute to the study of one such mechanism: consultative bodies of emigrant affairs. Looking at an entire world region -Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)- we compare the creation of such consultative bodies to the adoption of electoral rights and account for the main characteristics of consultative bodies, creating a typology of them along on two dimensions: independence from governmental authorities and degree of entitlement in the policy-making process. This work aims to set the ground for and encourage further comparative large-N and in-depth case studies that will contribute to better understand the possibilities that emigrant consultative bodies open for emigrant participation.

Explanations of why migrants return to their countries of origin tend to focus on factors at micro and macro levels: from seeing it as individual choice (e. g. neoclassical economics) or household strategy (e. g. neweconomics of labor migration), to seeing it as determined by structural conditions of receiving or sending countries (e. g. economic cycles, wage differentials, etc.). Yet we know very little about how states of origin combine their policies towards emigrants to establish economic links with them, from remittances to return. With an original dataset for Latin American and Caribbean countries, we can provide an initial descriptive panorama that highlights the choices that countries make in this regard. We compare the return policies to other economic policies geared to emigrants. This helps us in detecting return policies, which is often a neglected dimension in comparative diaspora policy studies, as one among several that states oforigin develop to achieve their economic strategies. Also, this first attempt at descriptive analysis provides further paths to explore the causal links behind diaspora policy development in the realm of economic policy. ; Las explicaciones sobre por qué los migrantes retornan a sus países de origen tienden a centrarse en factores de nivel micro o macro: desde considerar la decisión como una elección individual (la perspectiva de la economía neoclásica) ó como una estrategia familiar (el punto de vista de la nueva economía de la migración laboral) hasta asumir que está determinada por condiciones estructurales de los países receptores o de origen (es decir, por los ciclos económicos, las diferencias salariales, etc.). Muy poco sabemos, sin embargo, sobre cómo los Estados de origen combinan distintas opciones de políticas hacia los emigrantes para establecer vínculos económicos con ellos, desde las remesas hasta el retorno. Empleando un conjunto de datos originales, correspondientes a países de América Latina y el Caribe, brindamos un panorama descriptivo inicial que ...

Explanations of why migrants return to their countries of origin tend to focus on factors at micro and macro levels: from seeing it as individual choice (e. g. neoclassical economics) or household strategy (e. g. new economics of labor migration), to seeing it as determined by structural conditions of receiving or sending countries (e. g. economic cycles, wage differentials, etc.). Yet we know very little about how states of origin combine their policies towards emigrants to establish economic links with them, from remittances to return. With an original dataset for Latin American and Caribbean countries, we can provide an initial descriptive panorama that highlights the choices that countries make in this regard. We compare the return policies to other economic policies geared to emigrants. This helps us in detecting return policies, which is often a neglected dimension in comparative diaspora policy studies, as one among several that states of origin develop to achieve their economic strategies. Also, this first attempt at descriptive analysis provides further paths to explore the causal links behind diaspora policy development in the realm of economic policy.