When the UN adopted the Global Compact for Migration in 2018, it marked a quiet but central shift: diasporas are no longer framed only as communities shaped by their migration background, but as actors expected to play an active role in diplomacy. A few years later, the idea expanded internationally. In 2022, the IOM Dublin Declaration helped translate these ambitions into more concrete commitments, eventually shaping what is now the Global Diaspora Policy Alliance.
This shows how diasporas are increasingly discussed in policy documents, strategies, and official speeches. However, they are less often observed through the everyday practices, relationships, and negotiations that give meaning to “Diaspora Engagement” and “Diaspora Diplomacy”. This project builds from that gap. At a time where states are increasingly turning to diasporas as partners in diplomacy, development and integration, we ask a simple question: how does diaspora diplomacy actually work in practice, and for whom?
Our project explores diaspora diplomacy as a lived and relational process. Rather than framing diasporas as homogeneous communities or policy instruments, we focus on the ways in which individuals, organisations and institutions interact across borders and within specific local contexts. We observe how diasporic communities shape their relationship with both sending and receiving states (sometimes in alignment, sometimes not) and how these dynamics evolve over time.
While official policies and institutional frameworks obviously matter, they rarely tell the whole story. Everyday forms of diplomacy often unfold in community centres, religious spaces, business networks, cultural events and informal support structures. By paying attention to these spaces, we seek to better understand how agency, belonging and representation work in practice.
Ireland is an ideal place to anchor this conceptual work, as an emigration state with a large and influential diaspora, but also now an immigration state that increasingly large diasporas call home. Our project is committed to mapping three of these diasporas: Brazilian, Indian and Algerian.
Methodologically, the project combines qualitative research with sustained engagement beyond academia. Our work draws on interviews, ethnographic observation, mapping of diaspora organisations, and analysis of policy and institutional discourses. We approach this research as a collaborative process: listening to community actors and remaining attentive to the ethical and political implications of studying diaspora diplomacy. Where possible, we aim to create spaces of dialogue between researchers, policymakers, and diaspora organisations themselves.
This project is the result of a collective effort. Our team brings together researchers at different career stages and from different disciplinary backgrounds, united by a shared interest in migration, diplomacy, and international relations. We work closely with institutional partners, civil society organisations and diaspora actors, and we see collaboration as a key outcome of the project. The diversity of perspectives within the team is central to how we think, write, and engage.
This website is designed as an evolving space rather than a static showcase. Here you will find project updates, short blog posts and reflections from the field, discussions of emerging findings, and information about events and outputs. Some pieces will speak directly to academic debates, other will be more explanatory, policy-oriented, or reflective in tone. Together, they aim to make the research process visible and accessible.
We hope this platform becomes a place for exchange, a space to share insights and think collectively about the future of diaspora diplomacy. Whether you are a researcher, policymaker, community organiser, or simply interested in this topic, we invite you to follow the project, engage with our work, and join the conversation.
