By Lear Matthews
It has occurred to this writer that the word Diaspora is widely used but perhaps not clearly understood by many who are purportedly viewed as a part of it. Diaspora refers to the group of people or individuals from a particular cultural region or nation, residing outside of their country of origin.
They generally maintain strong sentiment and material links to the homeland. Diaspora activities include remittance transfers, circular and return migration, investment, knowledge transfer and networking. A necessary condition for a migrant collective to be considered a diaspora is the extent to which contacts with the country of origin, real or imagined, material or cultural is sustained. A level of transnational connection is maintained.
Advances in communication and increase mobility of financial and human capital have made it possible for immigrants to be grounded in two countries at once. Thus diasporans are often referred to as “transnationals”. Social analysts perceive diasporans as a group of immigrants and their offspring with a joined cultural identity and on-going identification with the country of origin. This implies the potential to assist as well as undermine the nation-state. It can also help to shape or influence the policy of the host country. What is almost certain is that the Guyanese diaspora as an entity in North America, Great Britain and elsewhere is neither dangerous nor interested in replacing any group or individual. Without malice, it is more likely that diasporans with a strong sense of attachment, seek to become constructive partners of change and development in their homeland.
DIASPORA ENGAGEMENT: VEILED COMMITMENT OR TRANSIENT DISCONNECT?
Most people who emigrate to North America, Europe and other parts of the world are influenced to do so by myriad “push”/“pull” factors. They anticipate better economic and political conditions and to be “accepted” in the Host Society. For many these expectations have been met with some disappointment and partial fulfillment of the elusive “dream”, while others feel resoundingly successful, of which they “write home about”. For Guyanese immigrants, having come from a country where people of East Indian and African ancestry have enjoyed “majority status” at one time or other, their new racialized identity and ethnic casting as a “marginalized” or “minority group” in their adopted home is a stark reality that does not escape them. They often accept jobs they are unlikely to do at home, enduring varying types and levels of exploitation and discrimination. The underbelly of this reality has been particularly exposed in the U.S.A. during the Covid-19 Pandemic by the brutal facts about economic and health disparities in comparable “communities of color”. Although not often openly discussed, Guyanese immigrants of Portuguese, Indigenous (Amerindian) and Chinese ancestry also on occasion confront acts of discrimination and prejudice in their sojourn in the country of settlement.
Engaging the diaspora has seemingly turned out to be an unsurmountable task for successive Guyanese Government administrations. The level of reciprocal respect and commitment to the process seemed to be tarnished by transnational tensions, as well as ethnic and political nuances. Organized engagement presupposes the formation of a partnership for development. Immigrants bring value to the development process through the provision of knowledge transfer, financial resources, skills and other human capital. Engagement also implies the evolving perception and potential of the diaspora, its composition and diversity. It is essential to explore the characteristics, parameters, benefits and limits of the engagement process. Understanding the attributes, assumptions and expectations is important to what is essentially a transactional relationship. Furthermore, it is presumed that the government has the resources and capacity to galvanize diverse groups in the diaspora and the home country by soliciting outreach by the Consulates.
Reacting to views about the need to strengthen the English-speaking Caribbean diaspora and its links to the home country, an esteemed social commentator advanced the notion that “We should not bank too heavily on unending outreach to the land of our birth…the diaspora is a slow diminution”. Contrary to such a dismissive prognosis, I argue that the Caribbean diaspora is unlikely to become inconsequential. Rather, it may very well expand, since it is not a time-phased, amorphous entity that faces extinction, but is likely to increase with expected migration flows. Push/Pull factors of immigration will remain as long as there are economic and social imbalances between nation states. Notwithstanding the growing anxiety over the “browning” of society demonstrated by some in the host countries such as the United States, voluntary unplanned migration will persist. People will continue to move across borders due to natural disasters, civil unrest or by choice, but maintaining links with the homeland. Furthermore, modern diasporas seem to be attracting much attention due to their potential contribution to economic development. The interest in engagement is not merely academic, but coincides with policy-making efforts to address issues arising from a world that is being transformed by transmigration.
Diaspora engagement strategies are viewed as policy initiatives to foster and manage relationships with the diaspora. A failed history of diaspora engagement cannot be denied. There is ample evidence of frustration, skepticism and disappointment among Guyanese in the diaspora due to well-intended but poorly executed diaspora engagement efforts. There must be a narrowing of the gap between discourse and practice. Failure to acknowledge the impact of tensions and augment strategies to ease them can be detrimental to effective development planning involving meaningful contribution from the diaspora. Such a shortcoming has been an impediment to serious diaspora engagement, declining interest to “give back” and attachment to the homeland.
Yet there is hope and willingness to overcome transnational inconsistencies and shortcomings and move forward in the interest of developing our dear land. An understanding of the capacities, limitations, challenges and community needs will enhance the role and mobilization of diasporans in nation-building. A Virtual Diaspora Engagement Webinar sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in September 2021 promised a resetting of a strategy for a more transparent, productive relationship with the diaspora. Enthusiastic diaspora participants shared what they could offer, asked critical questions, sought clarification and made palpable suggestions. Since then, a Guyana Diaspora Digest has been published, but although a welcomed, it seems to mostly showcase development projects in Guyana and minimally about engaging the diaspora in a meaningful way.
A FRAMEWORK FOR DIASPORA ENGAGEMENT
The following are guiding principles for diaspora engagement: Identify goals and capacities for engaging the diaspora; knowledge of the composition and diversity of the diaspora; decrease tension and build bridges; re-establish confidence in the government’s ability and commitment to engage the diaspora with transparency and earmarked funding; Consulates should provide resources to expedite diaspora engagement activities; mobilize and affirm the role of stakeholders; formulate a new paradigm in which diaspora organizations (including Hometown Associations) are more appealing to second and third generation immigrants.
These Guiding principles are not only designed to create a framework for informing policy, but sets the stage for a committed partnership and compromising, and a negotiated plan-of-action. With conviction and mindful execution, the process of diaspora engagement establishes the framework for inclusion by solidifying transnational connections. The Diaspora Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs identified as one of its principal goals: “To bolster diaspora engagement”. This can be achieved with transparency and in good faith. Policies shielded from politics and ethnic cleavage, but reinforced by institutions that shape inclusive Guyanese diaspora engagement need to be recalibrated. Identifying personnel in various homeland institutions such as banks and government Ministries to coordinate and channel communication with diasporans, as suggested by the Director of the Diaspora Unit, would be helpful.
The relation between migration and social/economic development within the context of planned engagement should be re-examined, particularly since a large segment of Guyanese-born population and their offspring reside in the diaspora. Notwithstanding anticipated natural resource fortunes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the architects of engagement can mobilize others in a milieu that encourages diasporans to fully participate in a process of reciprocity and ‘giving back’ to the home country. If the government’s promise to help the diaspora “maintain the strong connection with the homeland”, ultimately actionable response with input from diasporans and local civil society is expected.
NB: This Framework was presented to the Diaspora Engagement Unit. Min. of Foreign Affairs.
Comments
An informative and well-written piece. Words are generally bandied about missing the associated nuances. I am a “word geek” so I enjoyed the article. Thanks.
A refreshing and very informative piece of information/advice to those who left their native lands thinking that they had then aspired, or have been elevated to a new racial group. Those people, in my mind, are the ones who suffer from low self esteem and would do anything to bolster the way they think that they should be regarded in their new surroundings. Some of us never learn.
The article is informative and resourceful.However the receptivity of residents of the home state leaves much to be desired.
Is it only a case of ignorance or resentment that ideas proposed are so readily rejected?
Simple issues of addressing the damaging amount of irion in the drinking and household use of water is ignored. Provision of assistance to the elderly in a friendly manner are rejected. How do we integrate to a culture which we are apart of?
The Diaspora should end the remittances if Guyanese are acting intolerant while the foreigners rob them blind.
We gat over 15 billion barrel of oil and our GDP per capita is increasing by 50% every year. We don’t need handouts anymore from America. You can stay there in your tent cities and Skid Rows.
Dear Horace,
We Guyanese have a sovereign nation and we don’t like foreigners telling us what to do. We have a right to ban foreigners under the Constitution like we did to those two British men who dissed our Ministers at an illegal construction site.
Stay where yuh deh. We don’t need any more foreigners.
Excuse me?!
Who allowed you into this discussion?
If Guyana is so great as you say then why are females in labor dying while giving birth? Is this the medieval age?
Guyana is corrupt, mismanaged and will become the Equatorial Guinea of the Americas. I could care less.
Every one of you left Guyana while I stayed in the country as a patriot.
And to use Guyanese parlance: Ayuh wanna come back to Guyana.
Is it because we have oil, the fastest growing economy in the world, and oil reserves that quadruple in size every year?
My suggestion to each and every one of you living abroad: STAY THERE.
This includes you Keith Rowley. We are fed up of seeing your citizens hogging away our commercial activities.
We don’t want to become second class aliens in our own country.
It’s time that we as Guyanese kick out the foreigners and manage our own resources without the patronage of foreigners.
“My suggestion to each and every one of you living abroad: STAY THERE.”
How dare you say that Miss, Paloma?
This is a silly and ridiculous statement. You can wish for expatriates to remain overseas but you have no say or authority in what a citizen chooses to do.
Do you know the reasons your fellow citizens left the country? Some had no choice. Guyana went through a rough period in the post-independence years. Only an uneducated or willfully-ignorant person wouldn’t know this.
If you were born (and raised) in Guyana, you are a Guyanese for life. As such, you have every right to return to the land of your birth or to visit or to retire as you so choose. That’s a god-given right!
MP
I’m an American expatriate who is in the oil and gas industry. Guyana doesn’t have the human resources to manage the offshore operations.
I don’t comprehend why there is hostility towards oil expats when Guyana needs us more than we need them. We can always find another oil hotspot, like Namibia or Botswana for example. ReconAfrica is set to discover a massive oil find soon in Botswana.
That oil company you mentioned is Canadian-based. I wonder if you can share any information on the oil reserve potential in their licensed blocks?
If they do find oil like offshore Namibia, the stock price will go up.
[And I’m not stressing on what that inflammatory troll above just said about the diaspora.
A quick Google search showed me that the inflammatory poster went to study at Harvard University, presumably at the expense of the locals in the States and/or paid by the American taxpayers.]
Happy New Year.
There is great potential in offshore Namibia. One discovery alone amounted to at least 2.5 billion barrels of oil resource potential. Namibia may be Guyana’s competitor.
You should also note that Namibia and Botswana are considered more democratic and easier to do business than many emerging markets.
And this comment isn’t intended to provide investment advice. Do your due diligence.
“It’s time that we as Guyanese kick out the foreigners”
Like you want Guyana get sanctioned or what?
And give back Harvard University your degree if you deem yourself a patriot. You just like Freddie Kissoon who got a scholarship from Canada and now wants to smear Guyanese-Canadian Professors in his tabloid.
What does the Prime Minister of Trinidad have to do with anything? He is a respectable man. What is wrong with some people in Guyana really.
Some of the most foolish people are the ones flashing titles in front or behind their names.
Quite frankly, you will never impress me with credentials. The proof is in the pudding!
Lightweights, quacks and charlatans are everywhere.
But it doesn’t quack like a duck though. More like spew venom and poison like a snake.
What happens when oil prices collapse or oil reserves are depleted? Will those that they dissed help them again?
What Guyanese-Canadian professors? The quacks?
There are more holes in that statement than Swiss cheese.
Happy new year to you Jim. That’s a very huge find. I just searched Bloomberg and they stated that two discoveries from Shell and Total combined are at least seven billion barrels.
Seems like an oil glut is coming soon. The OPEC can cut so much before Canada and America [and her vassal states] takes over market share.
The American man isn’t stupid at all, as much as what bloggers quote as “illiterate primary school dropouts arguing with returning Guyanese working in oil and gas about how they, Exxon, and the USA don’t know about Guyana”.
Exxon seems to be very high for a stock price, so I’m looking for value in other frontier basis to get the startup prices.
I have to agree with Dr. Paloma! She’s the best!
Guyana doesn’t need more blue collar American-Guyanese and I find that many of you live on welfare. Many of you are lazy and want handouts from Joe Biden.
You want to return to Guyana to benefit you and not what you can do for your former country.
Sadly, Guyana is not for you. Stay where you are. We don’t want any more people clogging the social services, labour pool and healthcare system.
Dr. Shaniza Haniff, MD
Intern/Resident
University of Buffalo Health Network
Freddie Kissoon and Guyanese Critic like to insult the diaspora, but their close friends are under a criminal investigation by the United States intelligence agencies.
And none of the father and son Mohamed are seen leaving the borders of Guyana. In other words, the financial backers who fund social media personalities and carpetbaggers to insult the diaspora can’t even get a visa to the United States and they are not able to leave Guyana for some strange reason.