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A New Perspective on Human Mobility in the South pp 65–88Cite as

Diasporas of the South

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Part of the book series: Global Migration Issues ((IOMS,volume 3))

Abstract

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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter adopts the definition of the “South” used by UNDP because it allows for the identification of developing countries based on the quality of life or living standards, a useful measure of human development. UNDP uses the concept of the Human Development Index (HDI) to distinguish between developing and developed states. Using this definition, the countries ranked with a very high HDI (a total of 42 in 2010) are classified as “North” and the remainder as “South”. The classification used in this chapter is based on the 2010 UNDP HDI rankings.

  2. 2.

    1 Maloti = US$ 0.11 (February 2013).

  3. 3.

    THB 1 = US$ 0.033 (February 2013)

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for funding our research on South–South migration. Maria Salamone, Cassandra Eberhardt and Julia Seirlis assisted with the preparation of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP), Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

    Abel Chikanda

  2. Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Canada

    Abel Chikanda

  3. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jonathan Crush

  4. International Migration Research Centre, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Canada

    Jonathan Crush

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  1. Abel Chikanda
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Correspondence to Abel Chikanda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IOM, Geneva 19, Switzerland

    Rudolf Anich

  2. Balsilie School of Intern Affairs, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Jonathan Crush

  3. IOM, Geneva 19, Switzerland

    Susanne Melde

  4. African Migration Development Policy Ctr, Nairobi, Kenya

    John O. Oucho

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Chikanda, A., Crush, J. (2014). Diasporas of the South. In: Anich, R., Crush, J., Melde, S., Oucho, J. (eds) A New Perspective on Human Mobility in the South. Global Migration Issues, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9023-9_4

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