An Analysis of State Building: The role of professional Somali diasporas in post conflict reconstruction

This thesis assessed the role of skilled diasporas and their perceived contributions to rebuilding their homeland. The potential human contribution in post conflict setting as observed by the study shows that sending state and its development partners mobilisation efforts, with greater emphasis on achieving sustainable post-war development objectives have intensified over the past 5 years. The current optimism, which could serve as a grist to post war development, shows the significance of diaspora in homeland development. This is evident from the increasing number of international development organisations that have mainstreamed the mobilisation strategies into their wider development agenda, most notably IOM-Somalia. Some of these organisations acknowledge the broader role skilled Somali diasporas play in facilitating positive development in their home country. Building upon the theoretical underpinning (chapter 2) & the conceptual framework (chapter 3) that guided the research, the study employed different qualitative research methods to fully understand the impact and the context in which diaspora’s contributions are utilised to aid post-conflict reconstruction.

Somalia is in many ways an obvious choice to determine the role of diaspora in development in empirical depth. Combining transnationalism with the various aspects of the dynamics of return mobilities, this thesis argues that the typology of returns reinforces the notion that reverberates through many research papers on reverse migration and their subsequent contribution to homeland development. It however furthers the concept of reverse migration which is primarily aimed at engaging diasporas for development purposes by developing the contours of diaspora/mobility/engagement beyond the present scholarly inquiry by addressing the emergence of social media as a valuable tool for advancing human mobility, connections, interactions, and relationship with the sending state. In addition to the new emerging phenomena, the author took little explored path to examine the multi layered and multi fluid diaspora linkages (beyond home-host geographical borders) to different contexts of engagement driven by shared ‘identity,’ ‘culture’ and long-distance ‘nationalism.’ The study also notes the significance of brain circulation informed by transnationalism as a necessary condition for enabling the continuous flow of knowledge, skills, and information, adding a new thematic area by widening Somali diaspora discussions beyond remittances.

The thesis identifies and discusses key government policies and factors that facilitate the mobilisation process. This includes exploring the strategic behaviour of sending states’ adoption of conducive policies towards its diaspora, (Gamlen, 2006). The various perspectives of human capital mobility within the migratory and development processes provided a more complete framework to analyse crucial factors that determine the intensity and level of state-diaspora relations in Somalia, with emphasis on institutionalising government led diaspora engagements. In post-conflict terms, Somalia is a paradigmatic case since diasporas play a vital role in the cognitive reconstruction of the country. Overall, the paper acknowledges the valuable role of Somalia diasporas in homeland development and the state’s adoption of concrete measures to ensure the flow of skilled diasporas through building constructive relationships with its ‘people’ abroad, anchored in transnationalism. Finally, in a note of conclusion, empirical findings from the study show that interconnectedness and mobility of people beyond sending & host states’ territorial borders aimed at enhancing the pace of skilled diaspora mobilisation are fundamentally important in increasing reverse migration, with Somalia becoming an active theatre for the display of diaspora led development. However, despite their valuable contributions, there are multitude of challenges faced by the diasporas, for example, security, weak institutional capacity, financial constraints, and local resentment.