AMBIVALENT CONTRIBUTIONS: PROSPECTS OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN DIASPORA WELFARE AND ENGAGEMENT IN ZIMBABWE?

Abstract

Policymakers and Governments across the world are in search of ways of tapping into the diasporic economy and integrating it into the mainstay economy. This has propelled countries like Ethiopia and Philippines to intervene into diaspora engagement and welfare in various ways. However, existing scholarship acknowledges that the diaspora community is not a homogeneous grouping and hence an appreciation of their profiles is of paramount importance.  Despite existence of a human development cycle, accounting cycle, grief cycle, there is a diaspora development cycle which needs to be understood in order to guide the sort of intervention that a government may render in mobilizing diaspora participation. This paper therefore, attempts to define and configure 3 types of diasporas of interest: diplomatic, student and economic and detail their profile and development cycles. More so, the paper interrogates government interventions in the Philippines, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and proffer recommendations for effective diaspora policy interventions. The Study involved a qualitative approach in which interviews were carried out in different countries as well as observations done. This was further substantiated by in-depth critical analysis of document, study tour reports and policy reviews which then prompt the case studies used in this study. Findings of this study on diasporic economy have a profound contribution to economic turn around and development of the country if trust and confidence issues are dealt with in all earnest.