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Diaspora Activism and the Dynamics of Voice
external attention grants activists leverage and influence (Bob 2005; J. Smith
2004; Tsutsui 2018). When diaspora movements receive what Betts and Jones
(2016: 9) call “external animation,” they become activated and encouraged by
these powerholders to express voice.
Extending these claims, I argue that diaspora interventions are shaped by the
degree of geopolitical support they receive from their host-country governments, states bordering the home-country, international institutions, and the
media. Whether these geopolitical powerholders support diaspora activists
depends on a range of factors, including officials’ security and economic interests, their ideologies and professed values, and institutional missions. Outside
actors are also more likely to incorporate diaspora movements into their policymaking and practices when activists can fill in gaps in outsiders’ knowledge
about their homelands. Western journalists seeking to report from the front
lines, for instance, may rely on diaspora brokers for access and language
interpretation; state actors similarly rely on activists to provide intelligence
and the legal and moral justifications for foreign intervention (Moss 2020).
The geopolitical support of states is especially important when diasporas
seek to transfer resources across national borders. Diaspora members from
conflict zones face hurdles in sending remittances when banks seek to “de-risk”
their dealings and governments block remittances, citing reasons of counterterrorism (Fadlalla 2019; Gordon and El Taraboulsi-McCarthy 2018). Just as
Palestinian Americans have been accused of supporting terrorism abroad for
their charitable efforts (Pennock 2017), the current war on terror poses significant obstacles to organizing even for basic humanitarian relief among South
Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and Muslim communities (Chaudhary 2021;
Horst and van Hear 2002). Because transnational ties embed diaspora
members in geopolitical conflicts, persons accused of channeling remittances
to the so-called wrong cause can face severe penalties. Accordingly, diaspora
members’ abilities to move resources homeward – particularly to isolated places
in the world’s periphery – will be severely compromised unless they gain the
geopolitical support of gatekeepers.
1.6 conclusion
In closing, the primary contribution of this book is a process-driven framework
for explaining anti-authoritarian voice after exit. My argument, in summary, is
that when home-country ties subject diaspora members to transnational repression and conflict transmission, anti-regime voice will be weak. When quotidian
disruptions upend these transnational deterrents, diaspora members will
become empowered to capitalize on host-country political opportunities and
express voice against regimes in word and deed. The extent to which they
intervene on behalf of rebellion and relief is then mitigated by two additional
additive forces of resource conversion and geopolitical support.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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