Diasporas of the South

Most of the recent literature on diasporas and development has focused largely on diasporas located in the North, with very little attention given to those who move to other countries in the South. Therefore, very little is known about the scale of movement between countries in the South and whether the nature and level of development-related engagement by diasporas in the South is comparable to that of diasporas in the North. In this chapter, we show that South–South diasporas compare favorably not only in numerical terms with South–North diasporas but also with respect to other roles that they play in their home countries. For instance, even though South–South remittances are sometimes higher than North–South remittances, the volume of the former is frequently underestimated because of the prevalence in use of informal channels in developing regions. Furthermore, diasporas in the South also show high levels of organization by forming associations with various objectives, ranging from protecting the welfare of members in the host country to facilitating development projects in the home country. Thus, given the role they play in developing their countries of origin, South–South migrants deserve greater attention from researchers and policymakers.