Diaspora Strategies: Encouragement, Evolution, and Engagement Conference

9-10 September, 2011
UCD Clinton Institute of American Studies
Dublin, Ireland

L-R Nicola White (Diaspora Matters), Prof. Gabriel Sheffers (Hebrew University Jerusalem), Kingsley Aikins (Networking Matters), Tim Finch (ippr)

Conference Report

On the 9th and 10th Sept. the Clinton Institute held a two day international conference on Diaspora Strategies: Encouragement, Evolution and Engagement. Bringing together leading academics, practitioners and policy makers in diaspora studies the conference began an ongoing discussion on how countries engage with diasporas and vice versa. Presentations came from across the world with participants from the United States, Canada, Australia, U.K., mainland Europe and Ireland. The conference was organised by two of our PhD students, Martin Russell and Geoffrey O'Connor with funding support from the Graduate Schoolof the College of Arts & Celtic Studies.

The Friday sessions set the theoretical and analytical boundaries of the coming days. Discussions involved the definition of diasporas and their place in the world, the role of the Irish abroad, diasporas in U.S. foreign relations, and the role of diasporas in security and conflict. The first day was brought to a close with a plenary address by leading academic Prof. Gabriel Sheffer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A worldwide commentator and analyst in the field, Prof. Sheffer provided a thought provoking and paradigm setting discussion on the theoretical conceptualisations on diaspora studies. With a particular focus on an innovative “four-sided” framework to diaspora engagement, developing beyond the more recognisable triangular hypothesis, Prof. Sheffer argued for the increasing importance of formal and informal networks to our understanding of how diasporas engage in mutliple ways both internally and externally with home and host countries alike.

Prof. Sheffer’s address set the tone for the Saturday sessions as the conference moved from an academic focus to more policy based discussions. Another plenary address, this time from Tim Finch - Director of Communications at ippr, opened up important policy debates on diaspora strategies. His well thought out and engaging discussion focused on the nature of the U.K.’s diaspora strategy. This assessment led to continued discussion on central components of effective diaspora strategy including motivations and outcomes. Additionally, other papers throughout the day bridged the gap between academia and policy with discussions on the role of social media in diaspora engagement and comparative analysis of international approaches leading the discussion.

The conference came to a close with an engaging and lively presentation by Kingsley Aikins, founder of Diaspora Matters. Mr. Aikins brought together years of personal experience and expertise in an articulate and passionate address about the role that diaspora strategies can play in contemporary Ireland. Again, his address spoke of the emerging importance of networks to such processes. His address was followed by engaged audience participation which helped to bring together many of the overriding debates of the previous two days. Shortly after his address, Mr. Aikins participated in a roundtable discussion with the other plenary speakers and Nicola White, co-author of the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit. The roundtable provided heated debate on what diaspora strategies arguably could or should look like with particular interest on questions of nation branding, communication and diaspora-homeland relations. Perhaps the greatest indication of the depth to the conference is represented by the fact that what began as an academic conference concluded with engaged discussions that will be beneficial to not only the academics in the auditorium but also to the practitioners and policymakers, quite an achievement in 48 hours.

Plenary Speakers:

Prof. Gabriel Sheffer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Gabriel Sheffer is Emiterus Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has researched and published extensively on diasporas. His publications include Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad, which was awarded the Israeli Political Science Association Prize for best book in 2004. During his career, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Max Planck Institute, amongst others. He has also served as a member of the editorial boards of leading journals and publications such as Diaspora and India Journal of Diaspora. He is a regular contributor to Israeli newspapers such as Ha`aretz, Ydioth A'haronot, and Ynet.

Kingsley Aikins, (Networking Matters)

Kingsley Aikins worked for The Ireland Funds for 21 years and during that time over a quarter of a billion dollars was raised and distributed to over 1200 projects in Ireland, North and South. These projects were in the areas of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development. The Funds are now active in 39 cities in 13 countries around the world and over 40,000 people attend more than 100 events annually. He is also co-founder on Networking Matters.

Tim Finch (Institute for Public Policy Research)

Tim Finch is ippr’s Director of Communications and is an expert in the areas of politics and media and strategic communications. He has degrees in politics from the London School of Economics and the University of Essex. His research and publications on diaspora strategies include GlobalBrit: Making the most of the British diaspora. He worked for a number of years for the BBC, latterly as a senior political journalist based at Westminster. He is a trustee of Asylum Aid, the Zimbabwe Association and the Ramphal Centre, and sits on the Housing and Migration Network.

“There is much more to learn about diaspora engagement. Part of its promise lies in its extraordinary diversity- there is a diaspora partner for every dimension of development and for every corner of the earth. But for diaspora engagement policy to be most effective, it needs to move beyond the familiar language of using, tapping, or even exploiting diaspora ties into the language – and practice - of mutuality and reciprocity.” (Migration Policy Institute)

This conference will engage with one of the most pertinent political discourses emerging in recent decades, diaspora strategies. The conference aims to examine the definitional, theoretical and practical frameworks of diaspora strategies. It will examine historical connotations of the subject matter as well as more contemporary policy implications. It will examine the role diaspora strategies play in both the domestic and foreign policy of Ireland. Furthermore, it will locate such discourses within the broader international community, drawing out comparative analysis on questions of nationalism, identity and representation.

Schedule

FRIDAY 9^th SEPTEMBER 2011

08:30-09:15 Registration

09:15- 09:25 Opening Remarks

09:30-11:00

Panel A: Diaspora – Concepts and Contests

Manish Priyadarshi Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi

Diaspora, Migration, Dilemmas, Diffusion and Identity

Marcos Moldes, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Both, but neither: Towards a re-conceptualization of second-generation citizens

Chris Wallace, ANU Canberra, Australia

The Quiet Diaspora – The Welsh in Australia

11:00-11:30TEA/COFFEE

11:30- 1:00

Panel B – Diasporas and “Other”

Christine O'Dowd-Smyth, WIT, Ireland

“Strategies of Engagement of the Algerian Diaspora in 21st Century France: Re-Thinking the "indeterminacy of diasporic identity."

Raisa Barash, Moscow State University, Russia

Russophones in the post-soviet sphere – diaspora, divided people or anything else

Karine Dalsin, DCU, Ireland

Studying Brazilian Migration in Ireland through Established-Outsiders Figurations

Panel C – Diaspora in a U.S. Foreign Relations Context

Lina Venturas, University of Peloponnese, Greece

Changes in host, homeland and diaspora relations: USA intervention in Greece and the upgrading of the Greek-American diaspora in the immediate post-World War II period

Amit Gupta, Air War College, USA

The Indian American Diaspora and US Foreign Policy

Yannis Papadopoulos, Panteion University, Greece

Homeland Issues and ethnic group cohesion: The case of Greek and Jewish Americans

Gemma Dao, Heidelberg University, Germany

Looking back Home: The Vietnamese Americans’ Views towards Vietnam-U.S. Normalization

1:00 – 2:00Lunch

2:00 – 3:30

Panel D – Diaspora and Memory

Alma Jean Billingslea Brown, Spelman College, USA

Diaspora, Memory and Transnational Linkages in Ghana: History, Heritage and Commemoration

Laura McAtackney, UCD, Ireland

(Re)remembering Home: Exploring Memorialisation in the Irish diaspora

Stefanie Kron, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany

Diaspora as Memory of Migration and Intersectional Methodology

Panel E – Diaspora: Insights

Tim Meagher, Catholic University of America, USA

TBC

Thien-Huong Ninh, University of Southern California, USA

God Across Border: The Vietnamese Caodai Temple in Cambodia and Its Transnational Struggles

Jim MacPherson, UCD, Ireland

Gender and Associational Culture: the Female Orange Order in Scotland and Canada during the 20^th century.

3:30 – 4:00TEA/COFFEE

4:00- 5:30

Panel F – Diaspora: Irish and other contexts

Dan Lainer-Vos, University of Southern California, USA

Manufacturing diaspora bonds: the construction of socio-financial networks connecting Irish-Americans and Jewish-American to Ireland and Israel

Christian Ritter, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

Building a Transnational Community: The Case of the Munich Irish

Marc Scully, The Open University, United Kingdom

How much do you have to know about Ireland to be Irish?: Transnational Knowledge, diasporic claims and the Irish in England

Panel G: Diaspora: Security, Threat and Conflict

Rachel Le Noan, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

When Identity meets National Security: Assessing the Manipulation of Diasporas by Strategic Kin-States

Jerome Devitt, Independent Scholar

Diaspora as Threat:Responses to Transatlantic Fenianism 1864-67

Ohannes Guerkjin, American University of Beirut

The involvement of the Armenian diaspora in peacemaking, peace-building and national reconciliation in Lebanon (early 1920s until 1991)

5:45 – 6:45Gabriel Sheffer -"Diasporas, Homelands and Host-countries"

Plenary Lecture in William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium

SATURDAY 10^th September

09:00 – 10:30

Panel 1 – Diaspora and Language

Ewa Kobialka, UCD, Ireland

The issues of language and identity among Polish migrants in Ireland

Sarah McMonagle, Independent Scholar

Negotiating Identity through Language: Lessons from the Irish Diaspora

John Edwards, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada

Gaelic in Nova Scotia: Past, Present…and Future?

Panel 2 – Diaspora Culture

Emilia Salvanou, University of Athens, Greece

Historical Culture and Migratory Strategies: Being a “Muslim” Migrant at a “Christian” Country

Andrew Arsan, Princeton University, USA

‘Citizens of the World…Who Stopped on Every Shore’: Reading Lebanese Phoenicianism as a Diasporic Discourse

Audrey Robitaillie, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, France

Can you hear the Banshee Wail? Irish Folklore and Diaspora

10:30 – 11:00TEA/COFFEE

11:00-12:30

Panel 3 Diaspora Strategies: Analysis

Jayati Bhattacharya, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore

Political Synergies and Diasporic Connectivities in India-Singapore Relations

Norman Vasu, Centre of Excellence for National Security, Nayang, Singapore

Awakening Diasporic Identity: Diasporas and Governance in Singapore

Ikeh Matthew Nzubechukwu and Odoziobodo Severus Ifeanyi, Enugu State University, Nigeria

Africaand Her Diasporas: Building Global Partnerships for Development. (A Case Study of Nigeria)

Panel 4 – Diaspora Strategies: Agency and Action

Milan Singh, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Defining the South Asian Diaspora: Contested Pasts and Political Action

Carolin Fischer, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Conditions of Agency in a Transnational Context: Afghan Diasporas and their Engagement for Development/Social Change in Afghanistan.

Uchenna Ekwo, Center for Media & Peace Initiative, USA

Diaspora Media and Citizen Engagement in the Digital Age: Analyzing the Impact of Transnational Journalism on Democratization

12:30 – 13:30Lunch

13:30 – 14:30Tim Finch - ippr Plenary Address William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium

14:30 – 15:00TEA/COFFEE

15:00 – 16:30

Panel 5 – Diaspora Strategies: An Engagement

Brian Jackson, UCD, Ireland

Absence of Strategy? An historical comparison of attitudes and approaches of the Irish and Italian states to their respective diaspora populations

BredaGray, University of Limerick, Ireland

‘The Networked Irish State and “Netizen” Diaspora Membership’

Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, National University of Singapore

'Claiming' the diaspora: sending state strategies, elite mobility and the spatialities of citizenship

Panel 6: The Irish Abroad: Diaspora Strategies

Paul Loftus, President, Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce, Montreal Chapter

The Irish Diaspora: The Case of Montreal

Patrick J Kelly, RedQuartz Consultancy International

Internationalism: A Way of Business! A Way of Thinking! A Way of Life! for a Greater Ireland

William Peat, Gateway Ireland

The Importance of Being Irish: Exploring the Irish Diaspora of the San Francisco Bay Area

16:45 – 17:45Kingsley Aikins – Diaspora Matters ‘Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit’ – Plenary Address in William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium

18:00- 19:00 Roundtable Discussion/Closing Remarks - William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium

This conference is kindly supported by the Graduate School of Arts and Celtic Studies, University College Dublin.

UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies