Reaping What’s Been Sown: Exploring Diaspora-Driven Development for Sierra Leone
Date
2009-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In September 2007, the post-conflict West African nation of Sierra Leone reached
a turning point in its history. It has been experiencing the positive inertia which results
from the first successful transition of government power since 1961. Members of Sierra
Leone's Diaspora—its population living abroad—have been contributing to the
momentum as individuals and small groups, but they are divided along many lines.
Through the quantitative analysis of 250 survey responses and qualitative analysis of 31
follow-up interviews with Sierra Leoneans resident in the United States, direct
participation in Diaspora forum discussions, knowledge from personal experiences in
Sierra Leone and Ghana, and a literature review of Sierra Leonean history and African
migration and development scholarship, this research is proof that the population has
many common goals despite perceived differences. A report will detail their collective
profile and make policy recommendations to maximize their potential for large-scale
development throughout Sierra Leone that will decrease the country's dependency on
outside assistance. Transnational migration, in which there is not one departure and one
arrival but rather a more continual movement between locations, is becoming ever more
popular in this age of globalization. Instead of creating a trend in which Sierra Leoneans
only move back upon retirement in the United States, this research proposes a change in
development work which will facilitate highly skilled, professional migrants of any age in a country's Diaspora to lead transnational lives, developing capacities in their places of
birth alongside expatriate workers from international organizations and local
communities. Sierra Leone should be a model country and a test case for these projects.
To achieve the utmost success in Diaspora-driven development projects, migration
scholars must put more emphasis on studying single populations rather than overarching
theories and presuppositions which lump all migrants into categories which leave them
seeming less than human or invisible.