Sidel, Mark, Diasporas and Development. Bringing the State Back In: Government Responses to Diaspora Philanthropy and Implications for Equity. . Cambridge, MA: Global Equity Initiative, Asia Center, Harvard University, 2007. pgs. 25-54
Abstract
Numerous efforts over the past decade have begun the process of mapping the new world of diaspora philanthropy, which we generally define as giving back by ethnic communities living abroad for social or public purposes in their countries of origin. In most cases these studies focused on the activities of the donors and, to some degree, their developing intermediaries. They explored how much diaspora donors are giving, through what mechanisms, toward what purposes, and, at least in some studies, whether the new phenomenon of diaspora philanthropy is promoting equitable or counter-equitable development in selected countries. Studies have also focused on recipients: educational, medical, charitable, nongovernmental, religious, and other organizations and projects within home countries. The initial wave of studies in this field, often scoping exercises intended to drill down to a level of detail that made discussion of the phenomenon feasible, largely skipped over a key actor in the diaspora philanthropy process: the receiving state. Through its attitudes, policies, laws, and regulations, the receiving state can play a decisive role in the scale, priorities, and directions for diaspora giving. Of course, the state was not entirely absent from the early studies of diaspora giving. In work largely focused on donors and recipients, there was some attention paid to state attitudes and policies in India, China, Mexico, and elsewhere. But much of this discussion of the role of receiving states lacked the detail of the finely tuned focus on donors and recipients (Young and Shih 2005; Kapur, Mehta, and Dutt 2005; Sidel 2005; Viswanath and Dadrawala 2005; Merz 2005; Zamora 2005; Burgess 2005; Orozco and Welle 2005).
