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Abstract
There is a pressing need to extend our thinking about diplomacy beyond state-centric perspectives, as in the name of sovereignty and national interests, people on move are confronting virtual, symbolic and/or material walls and frames of policies inhibiting their free movement. My point of departure is to explore migrant activism and global politics through the transformation of diplomacy in a globalised world. Developing an interdisciplinary dialogue between new diplomacy and sociology, I evidence the emergence of global sociopolitical formations created through civic bi-nationality organisations. Focusing on the agent in interaction with structures, I present a theoretical framework and strategy for analysing the practices of migrant diplomacies as an expression of contemporary politics. A case study from North America regarding returned families in Mexico City provides evidence of how these alternative diplomacies are operating.
Keywords: diaspora; peace; conflict; second generation; transnationalism; diaspora-diaspora relations.
Introduction
According to the United Nations, around 3.5 % of the world population currently live outside their countries of birth. In fact, the number of long-term international migrants is estimated at 272 million (United Nations, 2019). Whilst the reasons for migration vary greatly, a sizeable proportion of migrants leave their homelands behind due to the lack of human and environmental security, lack of social justice, fleeing violent conflict, violation of human rights and/or natural disasters. For instance, in 2015, a total of 60 million people were forcefully displaced due to wars, famine or natural disasters and around 20 million of them were displaced across international borders (Safer World, 2016). Growing in volume and intensity, migration has become one of the most important forces that is shaping today's politics in the world, not the least evidenced by the so-called refugee crisis in the Middle East and how it has restructured the political power relations in the region and beyond. Whilst global deaths in violent conflicts have continued to steadily decrease in recent decades (Roser, 2016), the on-going conflicts as well as peace-building initiatives are taking new shapes and forms, in part, due to the increased mobility and long-distance participation of diaspora communities in homeland affairs. Under these circumstances, it becomes vital to scrutinise the impact of international mobility on peace and conflict in different societies, in particular, the role the diasporas can...
