E-2 Cooperation between the U.S. and Diaspora Communities: Implications for Development and Foreign Policy

Buller Room 250

In a partnership between the Migration Policy Institute and the United States Department of State, the International diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA) was launched in May 2011. IdEA is a platform for public-private partnerships designed to engage diaspora communities, the private sector, and public institutions in a collaborative process based on five pillars: diaspreneuership (entrepreneurship), Diasplomacy (diplomacy), Diasporacorps (volunteerism), Diaspora 2.0 (networking), and Diasphilanthropy (philanthropy). In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of these pillars for the development of diaspora communities’ countries of origin and the United States by examining their applicability to diaspora communities in the U.S. Finally, we discuss and explore the implications of our findings to the American foreign policies regarding the diasporas’ country of origin.