Who Speaks in the Name of the Diaspora? A Framework of Representative Claims Analysis to Assess the Legitimacy of Diasporic Engagement

In today’s world, millions of people are living outside their country of origin. In times when multiple loyalties and belongings are a social reality, the concept of diaspora has become quite a catchword. Diasporas can play a crucial role in world affairs by using the democratic spaces in their countries of settlement not only as ethnic lobbies and interest groupic, but also as agents of change in their respective homelands. Therefore, the importance of researching diasporas in terms of their social, political and economic impact has been recognized not only by academics, but also by policy-makers. Whereas the agency of diasporas has gained increased attention, the question of legitimacy and the democratic credentials of diasporas, however, is still an understudied phenomenon. Diasporas are able to operate beyond territorial borders, because they have a unique position as actors geographically outside the state but identity-wise inside the people (Shain & Barth 2003). However, who speaks in the name of the diaspora? Whom and whose interests do the spokespersons represent? Considering that these questions remain at the heart of the distribution of roles and access to power, research on the democratic aspects of diasporic engagement becomes crucial. Relating to the so-called ‘recognition turn’ and arguing that we need to unpack the practices carried out on behalf of the diaspora, I develop a new analytical framework in order to assess claims made in the name of the diaspora. By doing so, this paper builds on recent constructivist debates on political representation and especially Michael Saward’s (2010) notion of the ‘representative claim’. Conceptualizing diasporas as a specific type of transnational non-state actors, I discuss a set of propositions how to validate legitimacy beyond the nation-state and how it might be achieved. The framework thus aims to guide future empirical work on diasporas in the field of transnational governance. Furthermore, this paper is contributing to the scholarship, which is trying to understand the role of collective actors who claim to represent others for political purposes more broadly and sheds new light on claims of representation across borders.