A roller coaster of policy shifts: Ghanaian diaspora organizations navigating Dutch migration and development policies

Abstract

The potential contribution of diaspora organizations (DOs) to development in countries of origin has been widely recognized and resulted in so-called co-development policies in several European countries. From an International Relations (IR) perspective, co-development policies provide an interesting topic of study: by targeting individual migrants, DOs, and diaspora enterprises, state governments interfere in the domain of other state governments, in economic, social, and political terms. This chapter examines co-development policies in the Netherlands and the way Ghanaian DOs navigate these policies. Using a political opportunity structure frame, this chapter analyzes how DOs ignore, blend or adapt to—in short, navigate—these policies at multiple spatial levels, local as well as national. It is argued that the role of DOs has been instrumentalized: they have been used as a tool to meet the policy agenda on migration and, to a lesser extent, development. Second, different types of responses were observed, depending on the type of relationship they have with their constituents and members—the Ghanaian community—as well as their adaptive capacity in terms of time and human resources, including skills.