Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized global communication over the past decade, but there is a case to be made that diaspora communities are the original social networks.
An estimated 240 million people around the world live outside their country of birth. The ties that bind those emigrant groups can run strong and deep, making the positions they adopt and the messages they promote easily disseminated and potentially powerful.
While diaspora communities are often seen as benefactors of global development — for example, emigrant groups, often in more prosperous Western countries, who remit capital and innovations back to their native lands — there is also value in the networks that diaspora communities form in their adopted homes. It is value that is potentially worth investing in.
About the author
Naki B. Mendozamfbmendoza
Naki is a former reporter, he covered the intersection of business and international development. Prior to Devex he was a Latin America reporter for Energy Intelligence covering corporate investments and political risks in the region’s energy sector. His previous assignments abroad have posted him throughout Europe, South America, and Australia.