Closing the Distance: How Governments Can Strengthen Ties with Their Diasporas

More than ever, emigrants and their descendants who maintain strong links to their countries of origin are seen as agents of development. Eager to embrace this potential, some developing countries have created institutions to more systematically engage diasporas. MPI’s book, Closing the Distance: How Governments Can Strengthen Ties with Their Diasporas, offers an unprecedented taxonomy of 45 diaspora-engaging institutions found in 30 developing countries, exploring their activities and objectives; it also provides important perspectives from country case studies by senior practitioners from Mali, Mexico, and the Philippines. This event marks the book release and includes a discussion where panelists and book contributors provided insights for developing-country governments as they think about, design, and manage diaspora institutions. MPI analysts Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias and Kathleen Newland were joined for the discussion by Carlos González Gutiérrez, Consul General of Mexico in Sacramento, and Richard Cambridge, Adviser for the African Diaspora Program at the World Bank.