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Diaspora and Development: the Case of Greece

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Diaspora and Development: the Case of Greece GREEK DIASPORA PROJECT Workshop report Diaspora and development: The case of Greece May 2017 Greek Diaspora Project Diaspora and Development: the case of Greece The Greek Diaspora Project at SEESOX Workshop Report The following report draws on discussions from SEESOX’s Greek Diaspora Project (GDP) workshop, entitled “Diaspora and Development: The case of Greece” which took place on March 3rd 2017 at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. The workshop gathered a number of distinguished scholars, from the field of diaspora studies, and from an interdisciplinary perspective, including history, politics, international relations, law, economics, anthropology and sociology, to discuss conceptual, methodological and comparative perspectives, within which the study of the Greek diaspora and its relationship with the Greek crisis can be contextualised. The report represents SEESOX’s interpretation of discussions at the workshop and does not purport to reflect the views of any of the participants. Introduction: The Greek Diaspora impact on their countries’ Project development. Othon Anastasakis, Principal In terms of the project’s approach, it Investigator (PI) of the Greek is historical insofar as the past offers a Diaspora Project (GDP) at SEESOX, contemporary understanding of introduced the themes, objectives Greeks abroad and their interaction and methodology of the multiannual with their homeland. It is also research venture. The GDP aims to multidisciplinary, comparative, and examine the interaction between driven by primary research. A key Greeks abroad and crisis-ridden example of this is the conducting of Greece and their actual and potential surveys of diaspora attitudes towards impact in the fields of the economy, the homeland, starting with a survey politics and philanthropy. In order to on Greeks in the UK and expanding it achieve this aim, the GDP produces to other countries with prominent conceptual, comparative and Greek diaspora communities. analytical work, primary research, and The project aims at establishing a policy relevant recommendations. commission entrusted with the The GDP seeks to create synergy in mission of engaging in evidence- Europe and other parts of the world gathering through hearings, meetings where the Greek diaspora is located and expert interviews. This (USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, S. commission will publish a white paper Africa and beyond), so networking distilling policy recommendations with other institutions is an important unique to the relationship between component of the project. The Greece and its diaspora. project’s team also holds the ambition to extend the project Among its most ambitious goals, the regionally, encompassing other South GDP is preparing a digital East European diasporas and their map/interactive platform depicting diaspora organisations and media. 1 The aim of this platform will be to engages with Greece’s facilitate research on the diaspora as developmental trajectory. His much as the interaction between presentation examined this lacuna diaspora and homeland, as well as through the prism of three diaspora actors themselves. interdependent angles: first the Anastasakis also highlighted some perspective of Europe; second the indicative themes which the project study of the diaspora elites; and third will be exploring in the fields of the the diaspora’s increasing power of economy, politics and philanthropy. agency in Greece. For instance, in the economic field, On the first point he argued that Greece is a country for which diaspora Greece’s accession to the European remittances are of declining Community has been a decisive factor importance. However, other issues in the scarcity of policy oriented such as transfer of knowhow, market studies on the Greek diaspora and the access and entrepreneurial motherland. The transfer of EU funds networking, all via the diaspora, are stemmed Greek migration to Western connected to the vital efforts of Europe and lessened commensurably Greek policy makers and economic the importance of already declining stakeholders to boost the remittances of post-WW II Greek international competitiveness of the migrants. Consequently, the Greek Greek economy. In politics, the study research community focused on the of political participation involves the EU as the main locus of funding and assessment of the diaspora as a its corollaries, values and knowledge, political and technocratic actor from for the Greek state, economy and abroad, and how this relates to the society. country’s contentious reform efforts. From a second perspective, the Greek Finally philanthropy, very much Diaspora scholarship has failed to connected with the role of the notice that diaspora elites were a diaspora during the creation and constitutive element of Greece’s evolution of independent Greece in th Europeanization project, influential the 19 century, has become actors in Greece’s public and policy resonant once again, particularly so at discourse, and active philanthropists a time when state budgetary cuts (particularly in Greek education, create spaces of opportunity for high culture and the arts). Commencing impact, diaspora philanthropic giving with the market reforms induced by in public goods such as health, culture Greece’s entry to the euro, Greek and education. bankers and corporate lawyers, Next, Antonis Kamaras, GDP mostly residing in the City of London, associate and representative of the have played a crucial role in the project in Greece, proceeded with a management of expanding access to short analysis of the current state of money and the capital markets of the existing literature. He argued that Hellenic Republic. Since the 1990’s, there has been a decades-long particularly with the advent of the omission in the involvement of internet, diaspora academics have scholars and policy makers in the been increasingly prominent in some issue of how the Greek diaspora of Greece’s most contentious public 2 debates - ranging from the Greek civil states and develop complex war to the more recent contestation relationships with communities, around whether to assign blame to families, and neighbourhoods, not the creditors or to Greek necessarily involving the state itself. governments for the country’s failure Therefore, an initial challenge is that to exit the memoranda. Last but not of capturing the complexity of this least, philanthropic organisations situation, and identifying what founded by Greek ship-owning loyalties can be commanded by the families have become major actors in state. Moreover, when looking at Greece’s culture and the arts. Their spatial concentrations outside funding processes, their Greece, it is important to understand commissioning of public works and how these spaces - in terms of family, their internal operations and financial and cultural flows – connect governance are discreetly different to each other, as well as to the from those of the Greek state or of homeland. Cohen noted that it used wholly home-grown, non-profit to be the case that a country has a organisations. population that disperses and it re- It is therefore necessary that the gathers. Now instead people are research community addresses the starting to connect through a variety diaspora’s increasing power of of experiences, ranging from summer agency vis a vis the Greek polity, vacations to professional economy and society. The diaspora collaboration. These types of can now be the demandeur as the engagement with the homeland are Greek state, due to its fiscal straits, less than return, but more than has been discredited in local disengagement. communities which have to fend for In the discussion that followed, the themselves and may reconnect with point was made that diaspora their diaspora brethren. The tens of financial resources, depending on thousands of recently emigrated their country of origin, carry different individuals demand vocally active values, methods and strategies. political participation, and in Greece’s Therefore when we look at diaspora ageing society and bankrupt pension entrepreneurs investing in the Greek system, their voices carry extra economy, and active in Greek political weight. Finally diaspora investors are and civic life, we also have to analyse important players as the Greek how host country features of economy strives to shift its emphasis diaspora entrepreneurs are shaping from state to private investment. their pattern of interaction with Robin Cohen, Professor of Greece. Indicatively there are Development Studies, Oxford, began significant differences separating in his remarks by challenging the Greek-Americans from Greek- assumption that the state can Russians due to the very distinct US command the loyalty of its diaspora. and Russian business cultures and This assumes the unity of the state institutions shaping business and the diaspora. But diasporas, the behaviour. It was also noted that Greek case included, are research should look at studies on intermittently loyal to their home previous diaspora waves in the 1960s- 3 70s, not only from Greece but also Orthodox Church will be very high on from Turkey and elsewhere, and in the research agenda of the GDP. particular examining the interaction between return patterns and home Session I: Brain Drain Dynamics country conditions, as in the case of In contrast to the rather limited public Turkey during the high growth period discussion about the actual and of the 2000s. potential impact of the Greek The potential of the GDP’s digital map diaspora on the country’s project
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