Abstract

Discourse on migration and mobility suggests that transnational mobility is a manifold process linking together countries of origin, destination, and onward migration, and as a nexus of networks for sustained and continuous cross border transactions. Moving populations: exiles, guest workers holding temporary work visa, international students and more recently, swathes of populations that move owing to conflict, connect countries via economic, and familial relationships. Diasporic populations and economic processes of labor deployment across borders further deepen this connectivity. These populations are engaged in continuous cross-border transactions that constitute a communication infrastructure for economic engagement and plays a constructive role in economic development across the Global South and emerging economies. Building on interdisciplinary literature the paper explores key processes, that constitute a mature cross-border economic infrastructure that offers sustained benefits for heritage countries through its diasporas. The paper argues that processes such as money transfers or remittances and philanthropy from the diaspora may benefit communities in poorer countries but only in the short term. Well-developed processes that constitute a communication and economic infrastructure, such as knowledge and soft-skills transfers from a country’s diaspora to the local entrepreneurs, transfer of cultural knowledge, partnerships with businesses that lead to joint ventures, international trade of cultural products, cultural and educational engagements are processes that have benefitted many nations but prove to be elusive in poorer countries. The paper further explores, with examples, how state policies in the ancestral countries engaging diaspora are critical to developing a sustained cross-border economic infrastructure.

Presenters

Vandana Pednekar Magal
Principle Senior Lecturer, Institute of International Business, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Georgia, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Networks of Economy and Trade

KEYWORDS

Transnational Mobility, International Business, Diaspora, International Economic Infrastructure

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