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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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The negotiation of development by African migrant organisations: examples from Germany and Spain
| Panel |
42. Transnational spaces/cosmopolitan times: African associations in Europe
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| Paper ID | 392 |
| Author(s) |
Sieveking, Nadine ; Fauser, Margit ; Ngo Youmba, Friede
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper intents to make an empirical as well as a conceptual contribution to the discussion in the realm of migration and development. These are still two rather separated fields of investigation, though both currently address common questions. Whereas development research rarely addresses interaction contexts, institutions and social practices in the receiving countries, migration research is still little informed about the negotiation of development by and within the diaspora and the activities of migrants that go beyond private consumption and investment in the countries of origin. The concept of transnational social spaces can be a means to overcome this gap and bring both perspectives together.
Migrant organisations have been identified as promising development agents involving in community development, post-conflict reconstruction, strengthening civil society, supporting gender equality or projects in the field of education on the basis of their local and cultural knowledge and resources. Still, the positive or eventual negative effects of this engagement are debated and academic research in this field quite scarce. Whereas research exists on Latin American associations based in the United States, studies on African associations within European contexts hardly exist. The paper draws on empirical results from an ongoing research project on the African Diaspora in Germany and existing results from research on African migrant organizations in Spain.
Based on a study concerning African migrant organisations in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, which records the highest percentage of African migrants within Germany, the relations between established development actors (ranging from multilateral agencies, national and federal government institutions to NGOs) and diverse diasporic groups, as well as the constraints concerning the interactions between these different actors will be described. Yet, not only the diversity of African migrant organisations constitutes a challenge for the conception of coherent policies, but also the double-faced agenda of government policies (trying to restrict migration, while looking for strategies to support migrants development activities). Whereas some formally constituted organisations are already cooperating with government institutions, other more or less informally constituted groups are so far excluded, although the latter (ranging from hometown associations to religious groups) might not only be important in terms of identity constructions and mutual support relations among the diaspora, but also in terms of creating a space to articulate their own development visions.
The concept of transnational social spaces can turn the still very restricted view on the migration-development nexus dominating mainstream development discourses to the much more complex dynamics of the constitution of diasporic communities in different frameworks (such as in academic, religious, political, economic, or cultural associations). The approach of our research project emphasises the relational understanding of social spaces, constituted through the negotiation processes of migrant organisations with other development actors as well as within other diasporic groups. It also takes into account the multiple relations to migrants in other countries as an important element contributing to the transnational dimension of these social spaces.
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