Title: Strategies for Mobilizing the Diaspora Community in National Economic Development
1Strategies for Mobilizing the Diaspora
Community in National Economic Development
- Talk presented at Town Hall Meeting of Nigerians
in the Americas on November 20, 2004, Washington,
DC Sponsored by NIDO Americas and Nigerian
Embassy by - Dr. Ola Kassim, NIDO-A Chairman
2Objectives of Town Hall Meeting
- Meet with a Diversity of Stakeholders Engage the
leadership of Nigerian organizations across the
Americas - Generate Input Listen to your perspective and
insights. Critical inputs from the Nigerian
community to better define and address challenges
and opportunities ahead are needed. - Build Bridges Work with various Nigerian
organizations in the Americas to better organize
the community and realize shared opportunities in
home country, as well as host countries. - Invite Others Work to increase interest and
participation, and build a critical mass of
support among Nigerian professionals.
3Forum Process
- Introduction of Discussion Topic Moderators
frame topic, and open up interactive discussion
among participants. - Discuss Challenges Articulate and define
challenges and issues related to forum topic.
These represent opportunities for action. - Propose Actions and Prioritize Focus How can WE
respond to the challenges identified? What are
the most practical solutions to address them?
Which are the most important among these? - Identify Opportunities for Collaboration What
actions are YOU willing to commit to and champion
with the Embassy, NIDO, and other Nigerians and
Nigerian organizations?
4Mission and Objectives of NIDO
- Accelerate Knowledge and Skills Repatriation
Harness Diaspora skills and expertise for
Nigerias development to turn Brain Drain into
Brain Gain - Build Infostructure for Skills Pipeline Build
and operate database of skilled Nigerians for
benefit of public and private sectors in Nigeria - Strengthen Collectiveness Mobilize vast support,
and promote cooperation and networking among
Nigerians in Diaspora - Promote Opportunities in Nigeria Enhance image
of Nigeria to strengthen business, travel, and
investment opportunities
5Strategies for Mobilizing the Diaspora Community
in National Economic Development
- Definition of DIASPORA (G. Scheffer)
- Modern Diasporas are ethnic minority groups of
migrant origins residing and acting in host
countries but maintaining strong sentimental and
material links with their countries of
origin-their HOMELANDS. - The term Diaspora comes from the Greek words to
sow and over, as in the scattering of seed,
and for them it meant the seeding of Greek
colonies in distant lands. - Diaspora implies a settled community, rather than
a group of temporary immigrants with the
intention and ability to return to their country
of origin.
68 Major Impacts of Diaspora on Home Countries
Identified
- Remittances
- Foreign Direct Investment
- Market Development (including outsourcing
production) - Technology Transfer
- Philanthropy
- Tourism
- Political Contributions
- Intangible Flows
- Knowledge
- New attitudes
- Cultural Influence
- NB The quality of information, much less data,
about Diaspora influences in these dimensions is
in general very poor, posing a serious challenge
to policy development.
7Generalizations about Diaspora are perilous given
the variation in
- Historical Experience
- Relations with Authorities in their Home Country
- Levels of Prosperity and Education
- Religious background and Ethnicity both within
and among Diaspora Communities
8Overview of Home Country Policies and Practices
Toward Diaspora
- Varying Attitudes
- Warmly Embracing to Coolly instrumental
- Active Engagement to Indifference
- Mobilization to Hostility
- Increasing Courting Trend The policies and
practices of countries of origin reflect these
diverse views, but the clear trend is for
homeland states to court their nationals who are
living abroad. - Countries that actively court their Diasporas do
so in a variety of ways and with different
priorities China, India, the Philippines,
Mexico, Eritrea, Taiwan, Argentina and Ghana
illustrate eight contrasting patterns.
9China
- Strong Diaspora, Most Economically Thriving
Today, overseas Chinese communities exist in
virtually every country in the world at an
estimated strength of 35 million people. - Focus on Diaspora Investments The Peoples
Republic of China relies less on encouraging
remittances from its Diaspora and focuses more on
encouraging investments from her citizens who
live abroad. - Since the start of economic reform and adoption
of capitalism, the boom in Chinas economy has
been led mainly by peoples of Chinese descent
living in Hong Kong, Taiwan and its Diaspora from
the Mainland. - The volume of remittances into China is small in
relation to the size of the Diaspora---8 billion
(1991-98)which is only 1/7th the volume of
remittance from Indias 20 million strong
Diaspora. - According to You-tien Hsing the campaign of
attracting overseas Chinese capital escalated
after the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, when many
non-Chinese foreign firms led China.
10China
- Other Key Highlights
- It is estimated that about half of the 48
billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that
flowed into China in 2002 originated with the
Chinese Diaspora. - Ethnic Chinese also have an impact on the volume
of bilateral trade between the PRC and their
countries of settlement. - Chief motive for Diaspora investment in China
PROFIT
11India
- Embracing an Open-Door Policy India has moved
from a position of somewhat disapproving
indifference toward the worldwide Indian Diaspora
to one of actively seeking their involvement in
the nations development. - Resurgent India Bonds (1998) Launch of a huge
sale of 5 year bonds guaranteed by the State Bank
of India and available only to non-resident
Indians (NRIs) immediately after the Indias
first nuclear tests. - The aim of the bond which was launched with
patriotic fervor was to help offset the impact
of economic sanctions imposed immediately after
the nuclear tests. - The bonds were set at 2 above the US bond market
rates!
12India
- Diaspora Identification Initiative
- September 2000 High Level Committee on the
Indian Diaspora was tasked with the
responsibility of analyzing the location,
situation and potential development role of the
estimated 20 million non-resident Indians (NRIs)
and Peoples of Indian Origin (PIOs). - The report was released with fanfare in January
2002 with one key recommendation a new
framework for creating a more conducive
environment in India to leverage these invaluable
human resources. - The analysis reflected in the Report looks at the
question why FDI from the Indian Diaspora have
been low relative to the Chinese. The 20 million
Indians abroad generate an annual income equal to
35 of Indias GDP, yet have generated less than
10 of Indias rather modest 4.4 billion of FDI
in contrast to the Chinese who have contributed
half of Chinas 52 billion.
13Mexico
- Top Remittances Destination Mexico is the second
largest recipient of remittances in the world.
Mexicos Diaspora is unusual in that it is
heavily concentrated in one country, the United
States. - Enhancing Homecoming Launch of Paisano Program
and the Program for Mexican Communities Living
abroad (PCMLA) in 1990 focusing on improving the
treatment of returning migrants at the hands of
Mexican border and customs officials and on
improving services to Mexicans in the United
States. - The PCMLA also helps channel remittances to local
development projects in Mexico
14Mexico
- Supportive Government In 2000, President
Vincente Fox referred to Mexican migrants as
HEROES and in 2001 established a Presidential
Office for Mexicans Abroad - Innovative Action Initiatives 2002 Launch of 3
for 1 program. Every dollar remitted by Mexican
Home Town Associations (HTAs) is matched with one
dollar from the federal government, one dollar
from the state government and one dollar from the
local government, thus providing considerable
leverage to Diaspora fund raising efforts. - Strong Outcomes Mexicos Diasporas relations
have been developed from the bottom up with
individual migrants continuing to support their
families with the worlds second largest stream
of remittances. The volume of individual
remittances still dwarfs by a large measure the
remittances from collective efforts of the HTAs.
15Taiwan
- Leveraging Skills and Knowledge Capital to
Address Skills Gap Taiwan has focused less on
attracting investment from its Diaspora than on
making use of their skills acquired abroad
through networking and through migration. - Strong Government Commitment Examples of this
commitment include - The government established a database that
tracked skilled migrants and matched them with
job opportunities in Taiwan - The government systematically invited scientists,
professionals and highly skilled technicians back
to Taiwan to teach and to network with Taiwanese
counterparts. - Government-sponsored national development
conferences bring many overseas Taiwanese to
participate at government expense and contribute
to the formation of multinational networks
oriented toward building Taiwans business and
technological advantages.
16Philippines
- Leading the World in Remittances The Philippines
is the number one per capita recipient of
Diaspora remittances in the world. Approximately
17 of Philippine families receive remittances
from abroad. - Human Capital as Export Commodity The government
of the Philippines has institutionalized the
training of skilled and semi-skilled workers such
as nurses, physicians, nannies specifically aimed
for export to different regions of the world.
17Argentina
- Towards a Knowledge Economy The government of
Argentina has focused largely at mobilizing its
highly skilled Diaspora towards the development
of a Knowledge Economy in its efforts to
diversify its resource intensive mainly agrarian
economy. - Recent Survey Aimed at Assessing Opportunities
In 2003, the government sponsored a poll of 200
Argentinean professional Diaspora with a view to
answering the following questions - What lessons can one learn from other Diaspora's
experiences? - Is it possible to utilize the Argentinean
professional Diaspora as a key resource to
develop knowledge based economy in Argentina? - What are the conditions for that to happen?
- How interested is the Argentinean Diaspora in
playing an active role? What is its potential? - What are the main problems for the Argentinean
Diaspora?
18 Developments in Africa
- Eritrea. The government of Eritrea has been
encouraging its Diaspora to increase remittances
back to the homeland. However recent steps by the
government enforcing direct investment of a
proportion of remittances are viewed with
suspicion by its Diaspora. - GHANA. In 2002 Conference of Diaspora based
Organizations (DBOs) held in Accra aimed at
organizing and mobilizing the economic might of
the Ghanaian Diaspora.
19TRANSNATIONAL NETWORKS OF EXPATRIATE PROFESSIONALS
- Virtual Global Network A number of schemes and
types of transnational networks of expatriate
professionals have emerged that can be tapped to
enable their effective and productive role in a
home countrys developmenteven without any
physical temporary or permanent return. - Illustration The United Nations Development
Program supports major initiative in this field
called TOKTEN (Transfer of Knowledge Through
Expatriate Nationals). - Country Specific TOKTENS involve databases of
people and assisted visits of skilled expatriates
to engage in various development projects in
their countries of origin. - TOKTEN---A Possible Opportunity for NIDO
Americas?
20Clearly, Broad Forum Topic with Many Possible
Areas to Explore
- Best Practices
- China, Israel, India and their DiasporasWhat can
Nigeria and Diaspora Nigerians learn from them? - Partnerships
- Database
- Resource Pooling
- Business/Policy Climate in Nigeria
- Others
21For more information, please visit
http//www.nidoamericas.org
Email manager_at_nidoamericas.org
or callTel 202-986-8400 Ext 1023
Fax202-273-1078