“Harnessing our Global Energy”

Understanding Diaspora

What is Diaspora? Migration + Strategic Relationships

“Diaspora is a Greek word for Empire”

Definition of Diaspora

• Definition of Diaspora?• Further to a lacuna identified in the inaugural

inter-regional workshop (Observatory, April 2011), discussions at both national and regional levels should include the adoption/advancement of a clear definition of diaspora in ACP Caribbean (perhaps in cooperation with India, China and AU).

Where are we? Trinidad and Tobago in South-North context

•A difficult and historical relationship with the advance of the major industrial countries (G8) – Canada, United States, United Kingdom•The Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora has come to be positioned in some of the preeminent global cities of the first world.

Where are we from? Trinidad and Tobago in South-South context

•The colonial history of the West Indies has brought populations from several of the major world centres of wealth. •Over the course of the 20th/21st century, these centres have begun to reassert their historical preeminence in world affairs: China, Nigeria, Ghana, old Ottoman Empire, India.

Caribbean Diaspora and Diasporas

Diaspora and Development

KNOWLEDGE MOBILITY MANAGEMENT

• Diversification is more than new types of products

• Knowledge mobility management necessary to support innovation

Seven Pillars: Innovation for Lasting Prosperity

• Knowledge-based, diversified economy – brain gain– dual brain drain– nostalgic markets– Cross-diasporic/co-diasporic linkages

Seven Pillars: Innovation for Lasting Prosperity

• Good governance – migration and diaspora affects social and

economic health of Trinidad and Tobago

• Foreign Policy – a new aspect of soft power

Diaspora StakeholdersThe Diaspora-Development nexus comprises a number of interconnected relationships among seven (7) sectors:

1) Community Members: Migrants’ households in origin and destination countries

2) Civil Society Organisations in Countries of Origin

3) Civil Society Organisations in Countries of Destination

4) Relevant Government Institutions in Countries of Origin

5) Relevant Governments Institutions in Countries of Destination

6) Private Sector/Commercial Sector in Countries of Origin

7) Private Sector/Commercial Sector in Countries of Destination

Stakeholders = Data Sources

• Civil Society• Communities• Social Media• Universities• Private Sector• Regional Institutions• International

Organisations • Schools

Diaspora Data Needs1.The (relative) status of the country of origin and the country of destination

2. Relationship between diaspora and home country (remittances, imports, tourism, financial services)

3. The demographic composition of the diaspora/transnational families

4. The nature and level of commercial and NGO activity

5. Local and International Infrastructure (cost of diasporic relations)

Inter-national or Inter-state Relations: existing international legal agreements on migrant rights/decent work; data sharing among states at regional and international level

ACP and Diaspora

• ACP Observatory Interregional Workshop on Diaspora

• ACP itself as a space of African and Asian diasporas worldwide (African continent, Fiji, Seychelles in Pacific, Caribbean)

• Establishment of Diaspora Policy and Diaspora Unit at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Communications, including the establishment of a diaspora database

Professional Training + P3

• Development of professional training curriculum on M&D mainstreaming

• Government, civil society and private sector institutions (P3 secondments)

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