Diaspora Mobilizations and Conflict-Affected Countries in the European Neighborhood

Studies, University of Notre Dame

Why do conflict-generated diasporas in liberal states mobilize in moderate and more extreme ways for homelands emerging from conflict? How do members of the same diaspora mobilize differently depending on their country of settlement? This presentation discusses major findings from the large-scale European Research Council Project "Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty: Transnational Diaspora Mobilization in the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East" (2012-2017). As a Principal Investigator Dr. Koinova conducted her own research and led a team of four other researchers who studied the transnational mobilization of six conflict-generated diasporas (Albanian, Armenian, Bosnian, Iraqi, Kurdish and Palestinian) settled in five EU countries (UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and France) and their mobilization towards the Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East. The project is based on qualitative analysis of over 500 elite-based interviews, and a cross-national survey among 3,000 randomly selected respondents from the Iraqi, Kurdish and Palestinian diasporas in the UK, Sweden, and Germany. Important influencing factors include how diasporas are linked transnationally and how they relate to specific locations in their homeland. Mobilization varies depending on whether the homeland represents a weak, de facto, or de jure state. Particular areas of investigation included the role of diasporas in transitional justice, and how such homeland states engage with their diasporas.