Human Geopolitics: States, Emigrants, and the Rise of Diaspora Institutions

Alan Gamlen

Oxford University Press, Apr 25, 2019 - Emigration and immigration - 352 pages

Human geopolitics, the competition for population rather than territory, is an essential but weakly understood dimension of world politics today. Such competition has preceded violent conflict throughout history, but has been muted since the Treaties of Westphalia laid the territorial foundations of the modern international system in the mid-seventeenth century. Today, however, human geopolitics is being resurrected in unanticipated ways, as governments are enabled and encouraged to engage their emigrant diasporas.

How and why is this happening? Until now these questions have been difficult to answer. The majority of research attention has focused on questions of immigration policy in a handful of wealthy migrant destination countries, largely ignoring the emigration policies that preoccupy the worldâs many migrant origin states. This book addresses that research imbalance, by focusing on the overlooked sending side of migration policy.

Drawing on data covering all UN members across the post-WWII period, and fieldwork with high-level policy makers across 60 states and a dozen international organisations, the book charts the re-emergence of human geopolitics through the global spread of diaspora institutions â government ministries and offices dedicated to emigrants and their descendants. It calls for the development of stronger guiding principles and evaluation frameworks to govern these new state-diaspora relations in an era of unprecedented global interdependence.

Contents

• Human Geopolitics: 1
• The Global Rise of Diaspora Institutions: 30
• Exile Ingathering An Exposition: 53
• Regime Shocks in India Mexico and Eritrea: 81
• Labour Export from the Asian Body Shops: 106
• Intercultural Borders in Europe and its Emulators: 125
• Human Geopolitics in the Black Sea and Beyond: 159
• Diaspora Engagement goes Global: 183
• Orchestrating a Migration Regime: 205
• Following Diaspora Policies: 228
• Conclusion: 245
• Epilogue: 262
• Appendices: 265
• Index of Names: 310
• Index of Subjects: 258

About the author

Alan Gamlen, Associate Professor of Geography, Monash University

Alan Gamlen is Associate Professor of Human Geography at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Alan's research focuses on human migration and ethnicity, with special interests in the governance of international migration, diasporas, and transnationalism. He has written more than 50 articles, book chapters, and working papers on these topics, appearing in a range of journals including Political Geography, Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and International Migration Review. As an editor, he has co-published several books and special issues (including Migration and Global Governance and Diasporas Reimagined), and he is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Migration Studies, published by Oxford University Press, and Co-Editor of the Policy Press book series on Global Migration and Social Change.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Human Geopolitics: States, Emigrants, and the Rise of Diaspora Institutions
• Author: Alan Gamlen
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2019
• ISBN: 0198833490, 9780198833499
• Length: 352 pages