INFOCON Final Progress Report

INFOCON Final Project Report

International Civil Society Platform on Conflicts

Title Editor Typesetting in LATEX Photos

Grant Agreement Project acronym Project title Funding Scheme

Infocon Final Project Report: International Civil Society Forum on Conflicts.

Stephan Kampelmann Internationalist Foundation (Netherlands) David Brulotte and Renaud Philippe/Stigmat Photo (Canada)

Project co-ordination

210615 Infocon International Civil Society Forum on Conflicts Research for the Benefit of Specific Groups Research for Civil Society Organisations Stephan Kampelmann Internationalist Foundation PO Box 75 1040 Brussels, Belgium stephan@internationalistfoundation.org www.infocon-project.org

Copyleft

Infocon project, 2011

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Disclaimer 1 The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2011) under grant agreement Nr. 210615.

Disclaimer 2 The views expressed in this document are purely those of the authors and may not in any circumstance be regarded as stating the official position of all partners in the Infocon consortium.

Executive summary

European societies host a variety of diasporas that are potentially instrumental in preventing and resolving conflicts in Europe and the world. These transnational communities offer unique opportunities for constructive dialogue, opportunities that could be exploited more effectively. But how exactly should the European Union and its Member States go about doing that?

This question was at the heart of the Infocon research project.

Combining the complementary strengths of researchers and civil society organisations (CSOs) in several countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Kosovo), Infocon has produced a concise set of observations and recommendations that provide Europe’s policy making community with some guidance on a matter of broad public concern.

The first thing European policy makers need to understand regarding this subject is the importance of engagement. Europe must engage diasporas in political means such as debate, advocacy or political mobilisation, as opportunities for these forms of exchange may not be possible in a transnational community’s home country. While many EU citizens may take the modern European standard of political dialogue for granted, the project reminds us how powerful this form of dialogue can be as an instrument for conflict

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resolution.

Infocon focused on diasporas representing conflicted communities in Turkey, Kosovo, and the Great Lakes region of Africa. Interviews were carried out with members of those communities both in their country of origin and in various European host cities where they are strongly represented — Amsterdam (Randstad), Berlin, Brussels, and London. Thus the findings are drawn from populations representing a diverse set of regions and issues.

Through these targeted case studies, the consortium identified several common characteristics. Among diaspora groups in European societies, for example, the researchers found a link between maintenance of conflicts and feelings of injustice, deprivation, and a deficit of integration. In order to counter this tendency, policy makers are urged to provide access to citizenship and fight economic deprivation among these populations. Also, noting that conflicts between transnational communities undergo a process of transformation in European societies, the researchers caution against treating them as if they were simply an extension of conflicts back in the country of origin. Crucially, while about a third of civil society organizations representing transnational communities are actively promoting economic development back in their countries of origin, on the whole the project concluded that such civil society organizations in general have so far played a limited role in efforts to resolve or prevent conflicts in their homelands. Indeed, Infocon reveals that diaspora communities can be vectors of conflict and conflict resolution at the same time. In other words, the diasporas are no less complex than the countries and conflicts that have shaped them.

Surprisingly, given the explosive potential of the problem, Infocon observes that few public authorities in Europe have developed initiatives to deal systematically with transported conflicts. The project suggest this may be due to the fact that policy makers (including those that are themselves part of diasporas) misunderstand these conflicts or are afraid to be seen as taking sides. Acknowledging the risk of being instrumentalised by transnational communities, the consortium advises policy makers to first gain a thorough knowledge of both home and imported conflicts before taking any steps to accommodate associated tensions. Finally, the project has tabled a Mousebook — a handbook freely accessible on-line — with a series of recommendations for diaspora organizations engaged in peace-building and development activities.

Infocon Mousebook |

Diaspora communities in Europe clearly defy a simplistic view that is frequently encountered in media reports and policy briefs. According to this view, the communities are either “peace-makers” or “peace-wreckers”.

While they undoubtedly play a significant role in on-going conflicts around the world, diaspora communities in Europe are neither peace-makers nor peace-wreckers but spaces of solidarity and conflict, of close ties and mutual avoidance. This is why Infocon warns against policies that aim to instrumentalize transnational communities for peace-making or economic development. Transnational communities are an integral part of contemporary European societies and add to their diversity and complexity. Their role in violent conflicts will depend to a large extent on Europe’s capacity to integrate transnational communities in effective dialogue processes, political and economic participation, and the production of knowledge on violent conflicts and Europe’s role in them. Infocon was a step towards the integration of transnational communities into conflict research, but much needs to be done to deepen the role of diaspora communities in European civil society.

Chapter

1

Context and main objectives The Infocon research project aimed at promoting a better understanding of how civil society organizations representing transnational communities can work on preventing and resolving conflicts in Europe and worldwide. It was presumed that these civil society organizations were potential agents of peace both “here” and “there”, since they forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement. Therefore, in the Infocon project, the term transnational community included both: 1. migrants with a transnational status as residents abroad who are economically, socially and politically engaged in their country of origin; and those 2. people who remain in the country of origin but whose life is shaped by transnationalism.

Infocon addressed the above-mentioned overall question by conducting research among civil society organizations in four major European cities (Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and London) and their three regions or countries of origin (Kosovo, the Great Lakes Region in Africa and Turkey). This focus of fieldwork was based on two basic assumptions. First, it was assumed that transnational communities are not only the result or cause of conflict but can equally be carriers of conflict. Empirical examination of this aspect by the Infocon research teams indeed confirmed that conflict can be transported

Infocon Mousebook | Context and main objectives

through migration of transnational communities from a given region of origin to a city/country of settlement. This raised the question of the extent to which the communities under examination created opportunities to build peace in their cities of settlement. Second, based on previous research findings that transnational communities have an imminent role as “peace-wreckers” in conflict in their region of origin, it was assumed that the same form of linkage could potentially constitute an influential leverage point for communities willing to engage as “peace-makers”. Therefore, transnational communities can simultaneously constitute result, cause, carrier, and potential solution to conflicts in their countries of origin. Research undertaken within the frame of Infocon highlighted several cross-cutting issues and questions related to transnational communities and to the civil society organizations representing (or claiming to represent) them. These issues can be grouped into five main clusters which illustrate the various linkages and interdependences which still exist between the situation of the transnational communities in their cities of settlement, on the one hand, and the political, social, cultural and economic situations in their country of origin on the other hand. These groups of issues and questions can be briefly summarized as follows.

The first issue relates to the various levels of mobilization in the cities of settlement and beyond, in relation to the conflict in the region of origin. The levels of mobilization within transnational communities vary greatly and may be influenced by a series of factors, which include the size of the transnational community, the political situation in the country of origin (escalatory/deescalatory/conflict resolution phase) as well as generational, economic, social, or other situational factors. Moreover, this mobilization is likely to take a multiplicity of forms, for instance in a given city of settlement only, involving one or several (coming from various regions) transnational communities through a network of civil society organizations originating from several European countries or through links between cities of settlement and countries of origin etc. This great diversity in patterns and levels of mobilization ob-

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viously poses a number of challenges but also creates opportunities for civil society organization’s activities.

A second and related issue is one of content and objectives of the activities implemented by diaspora organizations. The literature on diasporas usually distinguishes these activities as either peacemaking or “spoiling” ones in relation to the conflict in the region of origin. However, the results of the Infocon project suggest a somehow more complex and less Manichean picture. The main cleavage seems to be between those civil society organizations dealing mainly with issues of integration in the cities of settlement while also sometimes maintaining some cultural links with the country of origin and those involved in often intense activities of lobbying and awareness-raising regarding the situation in their country of origin. Somewhat surprisingly, considering the wealth of academic literature on the topic, the researchers involved in the Infocon project found scarce evidence of structured reconciliation or peace-building activities within cities of settlement themselves, and many civil society organizations seem to consider that it is the conflict occurring in their country of origin that needs most of their attention and not the “transported” conflict which sometimes sharply divides individuals originating from the same region but belonging to different ethnic, religious or linguistic communities. From this perspective, it is also worthwhile to keep in mind that civil society organizations might not be representative of the whole transnational communities, and that this might make them more wary of launching activities that might, in the end, prove to be more divisive than reconciliatory.

A third issue relates to the influence and weight of the government of the country of origin on the situation and level of mobilization of transnational communities. Transnational communities and civil society organizations representing them often operate in a specific environment where their “home” government still plays a powerful role. Our results document, for instance, the fact that some states of origin (Kosovo, Rwanda) have set up specific institutions to deal with diaspora matters. These institutions might be created for various purposes, including practical and political, and this undoubtedly has consequences for the work of civil society organizations and for their access to funding.

The influence of the political, economic, and cultural context in the cities of settlement constitutes a fourth major issue. Needless to say, states of resi-

Infocon Mousebook | Context and main objectives

dence can also constrain the activities of transnational communities by laying down rules regarding their activities and by trying to control their attempts to influence the situation in their country of origin. In addition, the impact of (social, economic, and political) opportunity structures in European societies cannot be underestimated when trying to understand if and how transnational communities organize to make political claims related either to their integration in host societies or to the situation in their country of origin. Research undertaken within the frame of the Infocon project suggests that difficulties linked to access to nationality and citizenship might, in certain cases, lead to the emergence of grey parallel structures that are rather invisible and difficult to grasp — and thus possibly beyond the reach of research. The fact that some communities have easier access to citizenship and to political participation might constitute a mitigating factor favouring their moderation regarding the situation in their country of origin, while some communities, whose access to the political scene is hampered, might be encouraged to further radicalise their claims and stances. With regard to their wish to mobilize, the potential leeway that transnational communities possess is thus dependent on several factors like their political loyalty to the country of settlement, their citizenship status, international relations factors as well as economic factors such as their level of access to employment, social security, etc (which is often relatively poor).

A final and crucial issue relates to the transportation of conflict in the cities of settlement. One of Infocon’s objectives was to assess to what extent — and how — conflict is transported from countries of origin to cities of settlement. The importation of conflicts undoubtedly affects the communities’ process(es) of integration in the European Union, but existing literature seems to hesitate between, on the one hand, the claim that homeland related political activities increase the level of political awareness of migrants and therefore constitute a first step in the process of integration and, on the other hand, the idea that transnational linkages undermine the integration process by maintaining a cultural orientation towards the homeland. Infocon research suggests that there are various levels of visibility of transported conflict, some transnational communities being more affected by conflict than others (Kurds and Turks in particular, regardless of the city of settlement), and that communities who are the less integrated in host societies, for instance because of a low economic status, are not necessarily those who drive

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conflict transportation. What is more, while the current level and evolution of the conflict in the countries of origin undoubtedly impact on the relations between transnational communities in European cities, it is not, and by far, the only determining factor.

In sum, Infocon dealt series of issues and questions of paramount importance for understanding the role civil society organizations representing transnational communities can, and wish, to play in the management or resolution of conflicts in their countries of origin. At a more general level, they also provide a sense of the various links and interrelations that connect, beyond national borders and policies, local and international politics both “here” and “there”.

Chapter

2

Main results Migration and integration remain major policy challenges for European societies. At the same time, long, protracted, and often violent conflicts jeopardize human security and rights around the world. Infocon linked migration and conflicts by focussing on transnational communities with personal, social, political and economics ties not only in Europe, but also in regions struck by violent conflicts. Infocon’s diverse team of research institutions and civil society organizations set out to promote a better understanding of how civil society organizations representing transnational communities can work on preventing and resolving conflicts in Europe and worldwide.

The team collected over 160 interviews in Europe’s urban centres (London, Brussels, Randstad, Berlin), and more than 70 interviews in regions that experienced conflict (African Great Lakes region, Kosovo and Turkey). In addition, focus groups and in-depth interviews have been organised with diaspora communities and policy makers. Infocon also conducted a series of conflict resolution workshop in Lille (2009), Nijmegen (2010) and Brussels (2010) and edited a “CSO Mousebook” — i.e. an on-line handbook with practical

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information for diaspora organizations engaged in peacebuilding and development activities1 . This section sums up the projects main policy recommendations and research results.

Policy recommendations It is important to engage diasporas in political means such as debate, advocacy or political mobilisation. European societies provide useful fora for dialogue, offer opportunities for exchanges that might not be possible in home countries and that might prove useful for conflict resolution.

Diasporas should be deeply involved in development processes, but the international community should be wary of attempting to harness them for conflict mitigation or peace building. The communities are highly diverse groups that can lean towards both compromise and radicalism.

Maintenance of conflicts between diaspora groups is linked to feelings of injustice, deprivation and a deficit of integration. It is of utmost importance to guarantee, as much as possible, access to citizenship to these populations and to fight economic deprivation.

The conflicts arising between transnational communities are not simply transported from home countries. They undergo a deep transformation process and adapt to new local settings. “Imported” conflicts should not be treated as if they were simply extensions of home conflicts — even when they refer to seemingly similar oppositions and ideologies.

The importance of gaining in-depth knowledge of both home and imported conflicts, before taking any decision regarding the accommodation of tensions between transnational communities, cannot be overstated. Such a detailed knowledge is essential to lower the risk for policy makers of being instrumentalized or manipulated.

1

www.infocon-project.org/output/mousebook

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Are diasporas peace makers or peace wreckers?

1. Diaspora communities are neither peace-makers nor peace-wreckers.

The reason for this is their high internal diversity: instead of being a collective political actor, diaspora communities can be thought of as sites in which processes of conflict or peace take place. They can thus be vectors of conflict and conflict resolution at the same time.

2. Diasporas are generally considered as important with regards to conflict escalation or resolution. However, INFOCON interviews revealed differences in perception: for instance, the Kosovo-Albanian diaspora is regarded as “historically important� but perceived to play a smaller role today; members of the African Great-Lakes diaspora in European cities regard their influence on the region as limited, but in the Great Lakes region itself their influence is perceived as highly significant.

3. There are marked differences in opinion and behaviour between diaspora groups, and also between diaspora groups and populations in the countries of origin. The perceptions of parties in different settings (especially socio-economic status and date of arrival) are extremely important for explaining their attitude vis-` a-vis the conflict in the country of origin.

4. Size doesn’t matter for explaining the level of involvement of diasporas in their country of origin: small diaspora groups can be more active than larger groups (e.g. Rwandan diaspora versus Turkish diaspora).

5. On the whole, civil society organizations representing transnational communities have so far played a limited role in efforts directed at resolving or preventing conflicts in their homelands. There is an overall low level of involvement of CSOs representing diasporas in countries of origin. By contrast, the project found more evidence of active engagement in dialogue and peace building efforts among CSOs in countries of origin.

6. There are also clear differences according to the conflict stage: lobbying and advocacy activities seem to be greater when the conflict is acute but take a second place to survival and adjustment to host society when conflict de-escalates.

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Economic and development activities 1. About one third of the civil society organizations representing transnational communities are involved in activities directed towards the economic development of their country of origin, and approximately 15 per cent of them send remittances home. Diaspora groups originating from the Great Lakes region are the most active in that respect.

2. The more recent the date of settlement in European societies is, the higher is the involvement in the home society.

3. More than two thirds of interviewees in the countries of origin say that they have received economic and non-profit assistance from diasporas groups settled in Europe.

Transportation of conflicts 1. The level of tensions between transnational communities varies across groups and cities; however these tensions are often highly visible: about half of the people interrogated in countries of origin think there are tensions between the communities settled in Europe.

2. Conflict transportation is apparent in the existence of spatial segregation between communities, habits of avoidance and lack of contact in everyday life. It sometimes leads to violent confrontations, but it is mostly salient at the discursive level and in the use of symbols (e.g. separate commemorative events in the Rwandan communities).

3. The relations between the communities in countries of settlement are perceived to “reflect� closely events taking place in home countries – but the tensions between diaspora groups should not be interpreted as genuine extensions or reproductions of the conflicts in the home countries.

4. Economic deprivation and marginalisation play a great role in the maintenance of these conflicts: the precarious situation and lack of perspective of many members of these transnational communities constitute a fertile ground for the hate speeches of some of their political leaders.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

5. So far, local and national governments have launched few initiatives to mitigate these transported conflicts, either because they underestimate or misunderstand them, or because they fear of being seen as taking sides. This is also — and perhaps especially — the case for elected politicians with migration background.

Detailed results Sample overview During the first phase of the project, which roughly corresponded to the first and second reporting periods (April 2008-April 2010), researchers from four university teams carried out interviews on civil society organizations in London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin, as well as in the homelands of the transnational communities: Kosovo, Turkey and the Great Lakes. The teams aimed to interview a representative sample of civil society organizations by selecting at least ten organizations from each transnational community, representing different categories of organization. CSOs were chosen to represent trades unions, religious/philosophical organizations, social and cultural associations, media organizations, community groups and associations, women’s organizations, social rights movements, opinion leaders (excluding journalists and think tanks), economic actors such as chambers of commerce or business groups, professional organizations and student organizations.

The study was carried out in conjunction with ten civil society organizations representing transnational communities, or the interests of transnational communities, migrants or minorities. Previous research has focused mainly on politically active individuals, factions and parties or individual households. Infocon was the first study to have systematically examined the

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role of civil society organizations from transnational communities in homeland conflicts.

It is worth noting that the selection of civil society organizations was not intended to capture a random selection of the transnational community population. The civil society organizations may not necessarily represent the opinion of diaspora communities as a whole, and the respondents may be more articulate, more politically active and perhaps more oriented toward the homeland than others. Nor should the transnational community be seen as having cohesive views. People without strong political views, or out of sympathy with the leadership of their own community, may be less likely to be represented by civil society organizations. Transnational communities are divided by a number of significant cleavages (including age, rural/urban origin, regional origin, income, employment status, educational level and political and religious affiliations) and we have not been able to sample across them all.

Semi-structured interviews were carried out with representatives of more than 230 civil society organizations, around 160 in cities of settlement and 70 in countries of origin. The researchers attempted to interview equal numbers of CSOs representing the main parties in the conflict, though this was not possible in every case (for instance, there seems to be hardly any organized Rwandan diaspora in Berlin).

Profile of interviewed diaspora communities The interviews conducted in European cities allowed to characterize the transnational communities studied by Infocon. The vast majority of diaspora members the consortium spoke to arrived in Europe more than 10 years ago, and for some of them the arrival dates back more than 30 years. Given that all interviewees are active in diaspora organizations, this illustrates not only the persistence of transnational linkages over time, but probably also that diasporic civil society organizations are often run by established members of the respective community. As for the degree of integration into the host society, almost all interviewed diaspora representatives speak the language of their host society, and many of them declare to adapt and/or participate in its culture and political processes. This being said, only few of them declared to fully “accept or respect� the hos societies culture — an indicator that interviewees continue to distinguish between integration and assimila-

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

tion, the latter often being associated with a negative connotation. Almost 70 per cent of interviewees travel frequently to their regions of origin, a figure that underlines that transnational linkages are not merely “imagined”, but also influence the physical mobility of diaspora members.

Surprisingly, most interviewed organizations entertain relatively weak linkages with other civil society organizations, so that the there is still considerable potential for horizontal networking among organizations. As for the perception of the conflict in the region of origin, around two-thirds of respondents state that the conflict has improved over recent years. Finally, 31 per cent of diaspora interviewees are “economically involved” with their region of origin, with 15 per cent of them sending remittances back home and 8 per cent of them engaged in activities to attract investments.

As for the members of transnational communities in the regions of origin — i.e. people who remain in the country of origin but whose lives are shaped by transnationalism —, more than 70 per cent perceived an improvement of the core conflict over recent years. At the same time, more than half of them declare that tensions from the home conflict have been “transported” to the members of their communities living in Europe. This indicates that “new conflicts” in Europe, for instance between Kurds and Turks in Berlin or Brussels, are not only detected by the media, but also by parts of the transnational communities themselves. This is all the more salient since almost 60 per cent of transnational community members argue that the diaspora — i.e. those individuals they feel attached to but who temporarily or permanently live abroad — play an important role in the conflict in the country of origin. This influence can come in many forms, including political intervention and economic assistance. Overall, 66 per cent of interviewees in regions of origin declared that they co-operate closely with the migrant communities in Europe. This means that European

| 19 Table 2.1: Profile of transnational communities in Europea

Date of arrivalb Degree of integrationc Travel frequencyd CSO linkagese Perception of conflictf Economic involvementg Remittances sendingg Attract investmentg

Mean

SD

Min

Max

1.85 1.85 0.67 1.25 1.34 0.31 0.15 0.08

0.597 0.800 0.470 0.432 0.477 0.464 0.359 0.271

1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0

3 3 1 2 2 1 1 1

a

Interviews conducted in Brussels, Berlin, London and Randstad; all regions of origin combined. b date of arrival (1 => 30 years ago, 2 = 10 â&#x2C6;&#x2019; 30 years ago, 3 =< 10 years ago) c Degree of integration (0 = no integration, 1 = language, 2 = adaptation and/or participation, 3 = accept and/or respect) d frequent travel (0 = no, 1 = yes) e CSO linkages (1 = low / average, 2 = high) f Perception of conflict (1 = improved, 2 = worsened) g 1 = yes

influence in these regions goes far beyond business co-operation and official foreign policies: for instance, 70 per cent of interviewees received economic assistance, 50 per cent direct remittances. This is all the more important given that the countries studied by Infocon are mainly perceived as being â&#x20AC;&#x153;politically unstableâ&#x20AC;? by our respondents.

While many the transnational communities studied by Infocon share a range of common characteristics, it would be misleading to draw conclusions on their involvement in activities such as conflict resolution, peacebuilding or development processes without distinguishing between the different cities of settlement (diasporas face a completely different socio-political opportunity structure in the Randstad than in London or Berlin) or the different regions of origin (the dynamics of the conflict in Kosovo differ considerably from Turkey and Rwanda). An important step to understand diaspora-specific processes was therefore to map and analyse the influence of transnational communities in countries of origin on a case-by-case and city-by-city basis.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results Table 2.2: Profile of transnational communities in countries of origina

Perception of conflictb Tensions in Europec Role diaspora communityc Cooperation migrant communityc Political stabilityd Received assistancec Received remittancesc

Mean

SD

Min

Max

0.71 0.52 0.59 0.66 1.91 0.70 0.50

0.456 0.505 0.495 0.478 0.805 0.463 0.505

0 0 0 0 1 0 0

3 1 1 1 3 1 1

a

Interviews conducted in Turkey, the Great Lakes Region of Africa and Kosovo b Perception of conflict (0 = no conflict, 1 = improved, 2 = no change, 3 = worsened) c 1 = yes d Political stability (1 = not stable, 2 = average, 3 = stable)

Influence of Transnational Communities in Countries of Origin During the fieldwork, Infocon interviewers put a standard questionnaire to respondents in one to two hour interviews. The first group of questions concerned the influence of communities in the country of settlement on the country of origin. In the countries of settlement, we asked ‘Do you believe your community in this city has any influence on national policy-making or public opinion or policies in your country of origin?’ The majority of respondents answered no to this question. In the country of origin, we asked ‘Do you believe the community in European cities have played a significant role in the situation in your country.’

Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. In the case of Kosovo Albanians, in London about a third perceived a slight influence, while two thirds perceived only a potential for influence or no influence. In the Randstad, about a quarter of respondents saw some influence through networking or the media, but the majority did not; one respondent replied, ‘It is only possible to influence from within Kosovo’. In Berlin only one out of five respondents saw any influence.

In Kosovo itself, almost all Kosovo Albanian respondents saw the diasporas as having played a major influence in the past, though most saw its role as

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diminished now. Kosovo Serbs perceived their diaspora as having had no influence.

Turks and Kurds. In all of the cities the Turkish respondents perceived Turkish communities in Europe to have very little influence on Turkey, and the majority of Kurdish respondents also perceived that their communities have little influence. This was the case in London, Berlin and Randstad; in Brussels, respondents who answered positively saw the possibility of indirect influence through the EU. In Turkey, none of the Turks interviewed saw a significant influence of the Turkish communities in Europe, but exceptionally, almost half of the Turkish Kurdish respondents believed that European communities had either contributed to defining the Kurdish identity, or developing projects and initiatives that benefited their community. Great Lakes.

In London, Tutsi respondents perceived that only a small pro-government elite is able to have any influence on the situation at home.

In the Randstad, respondents either said there was no influence or that influence was indirect, for example through the Dutch government. In Brussels, few respondents answered positively; rather, several reported that the homeland government influences the diaspora. In contrast, in the Great Lakes, respondents responded more positively to the question of whether their own communities in Europe affect the situation in the homeland. Half the respondents from Rwanda, and almost all those from Burundi, saw such an influence. It is striking that, on the one hand, most respondents in the cities of settlement perceive the current influence of transnational communities on the homeland to be limited, but that, in the countries of origin, respondents were more likely to see the role of the communities in Europe as significant. This suggests that they see the potential for a significant role â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that they value the contribution of remittances.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Results for specific research themes In order to increase the focus of the research and shed light on the diversity of issues related to transnational communities, the overall research design of the project was structured by three thematic fields: 1. Transnational Communities and Conflict Policies (Work Package 3).

The objective of WP 3 is to assess the scope for transnational communities to contribute in efforts to prevent, manage and resolve violent conflicts in their countries of origin. In particular it will explore the existing and potential links between transnational communities and the CSOs in this project and propose ways in which this contribution can be strengthened.

2. Transnational Networks and their Role in Poverty Reduction (Work Package 4). The main objective is to identify the implications of remittance streams within diaspora networks and transnational communities for poverty reduction and economic development through trade and (self-) employment.

3. New Minorities, Confrontations and Policies (Work Package 5). The objective of WP 5 is to assess how conflicts in countries of origin are imported into the countries of settlement and examine the responses of authorities and CSOs in the country of settlement to these imported confrontations.

The following three sections summarize the main results for each of these three thematic research fields.

Transnational communities and conflict policies: scope for action by civil society organizations and host societies Our survey and interviews of civil society organizations from transnational communities from Kosovo, Turkey and the Great Lakes reveal very different patterns of engagement with homeland conflicts. Each diaspora is made up of different waves of migrants, and migrants often come from different backgrounds in their home society. We should not expect diasporas to be cohesive actors, and our findings confirmed this picture. There is rarely a

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single diaspora view. It is misleading to see diasporas as collective political actors, either fuelling conflict or making peace.

Precisely because they are open and leaderless structures, transnational communities offer an important space for participants to engage with contemporary conflicts. It is possible for initiatives to develop in transnational communities that might not be possible in the home environment. In principle, the situation of diasporas allows for new ways to frame situations and new forms of collective action.

The evidence and analysis described in Infocon Deliverable 3 suggests that views of transnational communities themselves are mixed about the scope for influence in the home country. In the case of Turkey, we found little optimism about the prospects — this reflects the Kurdish community’s frustration with making progress and the Turkish government’s unwillingness to recognize Kurds as a minority. Similarly, there was little evidence of involvement in conflict mitigation activities. There was, however, a considerable engagement on the Kurdish side in advocacy, lobbying and efforts to influence the situation indirectly through the European Commission or the European Parliament and counter-demonstrations by members of the Turkish diaspora.

Lobbying and advocacy sometimes takes peaceful, constructive forms, but there is also evidence that the rival claims of the communities contribute to polarization and tensions and hints that the conflicts were taking new forms in the European cities (“autonomisation”). The political space for moderate activity, pursuit of reforms and minority rights will depend to an extent on the course of relations between Europe and Turkey, and there is evidence of Turkish and Kurdish migrants working together, though generally in organizations which have a radical political agenda.

In the case of Kosovo, the general perception was that the KosovoAlbanian diaspora had played a crucial historical role in the struggle for independence, but the communities in European cities regard their scope for influence now as limited. We found little evidence of participation in conflict

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

mitigation or peace-building activities from Europe. An Infocon survey carried out by Kosovo Young Lawyers, one of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CSO partners, showed that while there is a good deal of cross-community reconciliation and peace-building underway in Kosovo, the European diaspora communities play little role in it; if anything, initiatives in Kosovo reach out to the diaspora.

There was a great deal of involvement in advocacy, lobbying and efforts to influence international actors. Again, this can be seen as a peaceful and constructive form of activity, although lobbying and counter-lobbying generates some tensions, though no direct conflict, between the rather polarized Albanian and Serb communities. There was little evidence of involvement or influence on the part of the very much smaller Kosovo-Serb communities in European cities.

Perhaps surprisingly, the conflicts in the Great Lakes, which are recent and still on-going in the Democratic Republic of Congo, showed most evidence of diaspora involvement in peace-building and reconciliation. Although most respondents in European cities saw the influence of their community in the homeland situation as limited, about half the respondents in Rwanda and all the respondents in Burundi thought that their communities in Europe had played an influential role. We found more evidence of involvement in peace-building and conflict mitigation activities, and two examples of ongoing dialogue work involving members of the diaspora. While it is difficult to assess the political impact of these initiatives in the African Great Lakes, there is evidence that new initiatives and political developments in the diasporas can be important. A significant factor here is that the governments in Rwanda and Burundi have embraced reconciliation as a policy aim, and this may help to explain the level of involvement by the diaspora in such efforts, and also the wish of opposition groups to develop dialogues of their own. As in the other cases considered here, it is characteristic that the nature of the disagreements underlying the conflict affects the terms of peace, so even what constitutes reconciliation and peacebuilding can be a charged and divisive issue. Yet, if any of these initiatives have the potential to make a significant contribution to a peace process, they deserve support and nurture.

Capacity-building, training and workshops can all contribute to such efforts.

Intra-party dialogues may be as important as inter-party dialogues when conflicts are polarized. Diasporas offer distinctive opportunities for dialogue, such as the Intra-Rwandan Dialogue. Even if dialogue does not lead to agree-

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ment, the clarification of interests and positions and better understanding of conflicting strategies may help to limit more violent strategies.

Even when the activities of transnational communities are not directed towards reconciliation and peace-building, it is important to recognize the value of engaging members of diasporas in ‘political means’, such as debate, advocacy, political mobilization and so on, which may help to ‘hold the ring’ when progress on peace processes is not possible. If European host societies can provide fora for agonistic dialogue, debate and discussion, even between groups who radically disagree, this is a valuable function. The media, national parliaments and the European parliament all play a valuable role here.

Conflict mitigation efforts among civil society organizations may have better prospects when the organizations provide bridging rather than bonding social capital. Where, as in Belgium, Hutu and Tutsi protestants attend the same church, and members of the elite in the diaspora meet together, it may be possible to seed new initiatives. Even in London, when Kosovo-Serbs and Kosovo-Albanians attend a cultural association or Turkish and Kurdish members work in the same organization, they take a step beyond conflict.

Economic development that benefits all the communities in conflict rather than just one may have more stabilising effects for a post-conflict country.

But such developments also need to be supported by positive international engagement with the conflict, appropriate development of institutions and a political process that offers a way forward.

The international community has become aware of the importance of harnessing diasporas for development purposes, particularly since the volume of remittances now exceeds that of overseas development aid. It should be wary of attempting to harness diasporas for the purposes of conflict mitigation and peace-building. Some diasporas are already seen as agents of Western governments, and this is not helpful for any party. European societies perhaps follow their best traditions when they not only offer asylum but also open themselves to deep, critical and inquiring engagement with those who have been driven from their homelands, creating places where those with intractable differences can speak and debate.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Linking motives for remittances and investment from supply and demand side The economic aspect of conflict-related transnational communities was studied under the lead of Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (CIDIN), whose team examined the engagement of migrants in transnational economic activities in their home countries and tried to identify key factors influencing the receipt of economic assistance and remittances by individuals. In Infocon Deliverable 4, the researchers found that at the supply side, social networks (CSO linkages) represent the single most important factor influencing all kinds of economic activities in which migrants engage. In a similar vein, at the demand side linkages with diaspora communities represent an important factor for attracting remittances and investments. Even while sending remittances remains essentially an individual decision, it takes place within a social-cultural network.

Looking at the overall picture, Infocon research concluded that, at the supply side, people who consider the conflict in the home country as more conflictive will be less likely to be involved in economic activities and remittance-sending.

The date of arrival is also found to be an important determinant for both activities: more recent arrival results in a higher probability of economic involvement and remittances. The views on integration (in Europe) and the reason for migration do not appear to be strongly related to engagement in economic activities. On the demand side, a strong relationship between variables concerning the conflict in the home country and the economic activities was identified, pointing to an inverse impact of the conflict on the economic engagement of migrant communities.

It is commonly believed that poverty reduction should be part of conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction processes. Transnational communities might play a crucial role in this domain. Even though the focus of Work Package 4 did not contain specific questions regarding the way or the extend to which these communities can contribute to this issue, the research

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discerns some interesting outcomes. In particular, Deliverable 4 provides consistent evidence that regarding the determinants on the supply side, variables related to the conflict (i.e. position in conflict) appear to be strongly, albeit negatively related to the likelihood of engagement in economic activities in the home countries. We cannot ascertain, however, whether the opposite relationship holds. CSO linkages and frequent travel to the home country can partly mitigate this relationship and tend to favour economic engagement. Similarly, all variables that were significantly related to the receipt of economic support are strongly related to the conflict perception in the home country: respondents who perceive the local conflict as deteriorating are less likely to receive economic assistance. Wherever the diaspora community is considered to play a role in local conflict mitigation, the likelihood of receiving remittances clearly increases. Consequently, the study concludes that migrant networks act as an important link between sending and receiving economic support.

Beyond the core conflict: new minorities, new confrontations and new policies Work package 5, led by the CEDEM at the Universit´e de Li`ege, focused on the conflicts associated with transnational communities in Europe. Starting with the observation that an immigrant is above all an emigrant, Infocon Deliverable 5 argued that, Firstly, this fact involves that the immigrant has a specific relationship with a country besides the one he has with his country of settlement. Secondly, it implies also that the immigrantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biography has begun before its settlement, and that his or her socio-emotional roots might lie in another country. These factors have been neglected in studies on migration. However, the events of September 11, 2001, for instance, have shown that many conflicts are not any more contained in any specific territory. Recent technological developments, whether it is in mobility or in communication, have had a major impact on the way these conflicts are transported in the host societies in which migrants settle.

In Brussels, as in other European cities hosting many migrants like London, Berlin or in the Randstad region, the transportation of the core conflicts is a reality. Whether they are of low salience (as in the case of the Kosovo conflict) or more visible (such as in the Kurdish conflict or the Rwandan transnational community), they have an important influence on the relation-

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

ships that the conflict-related communities entertain with each other. While avoidance is one symptom of transported conflicts, the “new” conflicts in European cities are also detectable at the discursive and symbolic levels. As a consequence, the most visible forms of transported conflicts — the violent confrontations such as those that occurred between Kurds and Turks in Brussels and Berlin — are therefore but one modality of the conflicts associated with diaspora communities: policies that address the transportation of conflicts should be aware of other, arguably more subtle forms of diaspora-related conflicts in Europe.

Deliverable 4 distinguishes between endogenous and exogenous factors contributing to the transportation of the core conflicts into the countries of settlement. Massive flows of refugees, often still feeling bitterness and anger, tend to be more active in this process. But the massive arrivals of asylum-seekers are not enough to explain the perpetuation and mutation of the core conflicts in European cities. In particular; Deliverable 5 argues that the role played by political authorities or politico-militaristic factions of the home country should not be neglected.

But, above all, the responsibility of some ethnic leaders has to be highlighted. These leaders are able to mobilise members of their community, notably younger generations often born in European countries, often by employing obscure threats that the other conflict-related community is supposed to represent. As a result, they tend to reinforce and increase the socio-political fragmentation already existing in the homeland. Through their use of symbols and narratives, they fuel without any doubt the transported conflict.

However, diaspora leaders are only one factor contributing to the transportation and perpetuation of the core conflicts. According to Infocon research by the Universit´e de Li`ege, the immigration and integration policies of the host countries have also had a considerable impact in this respect.

For instance, Deliverable 4 argued that the precarious situation of asylumseekers and the lack of perspectives felt by many young people of the second

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and third generations constitute a fertile ground for occasional hate-speeches by ethnic leaders.

This being said, diaspora communities and their leaders also develop activities and events in order to mitigate the transportation of conflicts into Europe, for instance by working in favour of social cohesion. Indeed, as several interviewed diaspora organizations emphasized, conflict mitigation and social cohesion are closely intertwined. Even if the transported conflicts have currently limited visibility in Europe, they pose a genuine threat to overall social cohesion of European societies to the extent that they have a negative impact on the relationships between conflict-related communities that are concentrated in large European cities.

Civil society organization related to transnational communities have also be found involved in initiatives aiming at the mitigation and solving of the core conflicts. Besides their political activities oriented towards the political authorities of their country of origin, some leaders interviewed by Infocon lobby European authorities and engage in lobbying and advocacy activities in order to influence public opinion. Giving up nationalist slogans, many of them moved towards framing their case by referring to the declaration of the Human Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights. Others engage in economic or cultural activities that actively contribute to the reconstruction of their conflict-torn regions of origin.

The research on the transportation of conflicts, in many respects a new field of investigation, has raised many questions which merit further attention. First, it would be worthwhile to improve our understanding of the motivations of ethnic leaders who knowingly fuel the transportation of conflicts into European societies. In light of the diversity of communities and factions, this can only be achieved on a case-by-case basis gathering in-depth information on the internal organization of diasporas and their representatives. Another important question concern the way that the members of the conflict-related community, as opposed to their leaders, consider the transported conflicts, and how they evaluate the impact of the conflict on their everyday life. It would be improve Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to respond to conflict transportation if further research could clarify and analyse the many obstacles that conflict mitigation initiatives appear to meet in practice, and to study the effective impact that existing initiatives have had so far.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Challenges faced by diaspora organizations — and how they can be addressed While past research on diasporas and transnational communities has been relatively extensive (focusing, for instance, on the relations between diasporas and their countries of origin or on the nexus between migration and development), little is known about the civil society organizations that grow out of these communities, and how these organizations in turn shape, structure and represent the communities. Admittedly, most of the civil society organisations are small in size and of a limited membership; but according to most policy makers or researchers, they nevertheless contribute significantly to building links between countries of origin and countries of settlement. They have a key role to play in peacebuilding initiatives in these two locations as well as in development in home countries.

Nevertheless, they face great challenges in their everyday activities, related to their transnational nature and sometimes limited size, The INFOCON Mousebook their relations with the local and national authorities in the country of settlement and the very high internal diversity of members of the transnational communities they wish to represent. To explore these challenges systematically, the Infocon consortium compiled a “Mousebook” — i.e. an on-line handbook with practical information for Transnational diaspora organizations engaged in Communities and Conflicts Challenges and how to address them peacebuilding and development activities. This publication aimed to describe and analyse some of these challenges to peacebuilding and development activities and to present the ways in which the civil society organizations involved in the Infocon project have been trying to deal with them. The aim of the Mousebook

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was not to be comprehensive or to prescribe one-size-fits-all formulas, since all authors recognize the specificity and singularity of their own experience.

It was, however, hoped that discussing specific examples and highlighting solutions that were found will foster a better understanding of the work of these civil society organizations and help others to imagine and set their own path through the various traps and quagmires — as well as opportunities — that lie ahead of them.

Indeed, one of the objectives of the Infocon project was to launch a reflection and a debate on the challenges faced by diaspora communities, both in their cities of settlement and in their countries of origin, and how these challenges could be addressed, and the Mousebook is the product of such a reflection. The objectives of this publication, a joint collaboration between Infocon’s academic and civil society partners (both contributing to the conceptualization and writing of the following chapters), are to help transnational communities think through critical issues related to their dayto-day engagement with economic development and conflict transformation in home and host societies. As such, it intends to provide very practical guidance (supplemented by case studies in boxes, check-lists, etc.) to thinking through and dealing with these issues. It therefore is a mix between “guidelines” and “lessons learned” that draw on the results of the Infocon research and highlight the main trends that have been observed.

Instead of organizing the chapters around various types of activities or of civil society organizations, the consortium has chosen to structure the contributions around “questions” or “issues” that are representative of the types of challenges diaspora organizations face on an everyday basis. These issues are to a large extent cross-cutting in the sense that they pertain to a large number of activities undertaken by these organizations, irrespective of their specific focus, be it reconciliation, development or advocacy work.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Generally speaking, all contributions included in the Mousebook have strived to address three main questions: 1. What is the scope of influence and intervention of civil society organizations representing transnational communities? How can they deal with their perceived lack of accountability?

2. How can they usefully contribute to ease conflicts back home and to defuse tensions emerging in countries of settlement? And more specifically, how can they deal with the difficulties related to the fact that some of them embody one side or the other and thus have to be extremely cautious in order to avoid to further escalating the “home” or “transported” conflicts?

3. What kind of tools can be set up, and what kind of strategies have proven to be the most effective for these purposes?

While each contribution in the Mousebook focuses on specific challenge, together they highlight some key issues that seem to be cutting across all types of activities and structures and thus require specific attention. First of all, most of the organizations studied within the frame of the Infocon project voice a sense of powerlessness due to the widespread economic deprivation and social marginalization affecting their members and thus undermining their own strength and bargaining power. Many organizations also mention the difficulty they face when trying to find effective interlocutors in countries of settlement. This elusiveness of interlocutors in host societies might be related to the fact that diaspora organizations are traditionally not well integrated in policy-making networks, but it also points at the general lack or very low level of interest of national and local authorities in these matters. Raising the interest of local and national stake-holders in the types of activities implemented by diaspora organizations is thus an urgent and vital task if they wish to be better included within policy-making networks and facilitate their access to funding.

Most diaspora organizations also acknowledge a certain lack of organization and institutionalization which hampers the setting up of coherent and strong initiatives. This seems to be due to their inherently divided and fragmented character, closely mirroring the cleavages existing between the various groups composing transnational communities and dividing them

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along political, religious, ethnic or social lines. Managing their own divisions and fragmentation without obliterating this internal diversity seems to be a prerequisite for agreeing on a common and coherent strategy that could increase their bargaining power. What is more, fragmentation makes exchanges with policy-makers and funding agencies more complex. While fragmentation within diaspora groups is generally considered as a normal occurrence given the high internal diversity of transnational communities, the fact that civil society organizations reflect such a diversity is sometimes considered by funding agencies as a major limitation in their capacity to reach all sections of the communities and to launch and implement consensual programs, especially in the field of peace building.

More generally, diaspora organizations cannot ignore the fact that cleavages existing between or within rival communities might lead to violent conflict â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not only in their countries of origin but also in host societies. While some of these organizations dedicate some or most of their time to reconciling these differences, all of them recognize the importance of managing these conflicts, as they reinforce negative stereotypes about transnational communities and impede their own access to funding. But diaspora organizations all face considerable constraints in their everyday work, among which the opposition from homeland governments when these are opposed to the homeland state-led approaches that are promoted, or the lack of information- haring between the various transnational communities and between the transnational communities and the governments in countries or origin. While the diaspora organizations representing a given community generally know each other and may engage in exchange around their activities, the level of interaction between civil society organizations representing different transnational communities remains very low. This hampers the transfer of knowledge on good practices, on opportunities for funding and obviously hinders their capacity to present a united front to national authorities and funding agencies.

In order to deal with these challenges, diaspora organizations can, however, build on two main assets. On the one hand, it has to be recognized that these organizations are committed actors. Most are committed to development processes and peace building both in their countries of origin and in the cities where they have settled. And unlike many foreign development agencies they are not likely to shift quickly to other sites of interest. Such a sustained interest is key, as all studies have shown that development and

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

peace building processes follow a very slow pace that is often not matched by international interest. As such, they have a great contribution to make to the development of their regions and countries of origin as well as to the stabilization of these areas. At the same time, they also contribute to public spheres in countries of settlement, because they can channel claims of communities that would otherwise be completely unheard or silenced. They thus play a fundamental role for enhancing our democracies and for improving the representation of the various groups that make up our societies. On the other hand, these organizations provide a link between communities here and there: they are often well informed about what is happening on the ground, and are culturally better equipped than most foreign agencies for understanding the local processes, because they are familiar with the local cultures. As such, they possess a crucial and detailed knowledge about the needs, claims and wishes of local communities, which is key to the design and implementation of relevant and tailored policies. Civil society organizations representing transnational communities can act as “brokers” and “bridge builders” because they are intermediaries between communities in home and host countries and also between various diaspora groups. They have a knowledge and a familiarity with both home and host societies that is embodied first in a network of relations “here” and “there” and in a series of projects that foster exchanges and transfers at cultural, economic and social levels.

Among all the challenges discussed in the Mousebook, several stand out, highlighting the difficulties encountered by diaspora organizations in their everyday practice. First of all, there seems to be an overall agreement over the need to tackle the issue of the impact of diaspora activities on both homeand host- land societies. Most of the organizations involved in the Infocon project were often wary when asked to assess the impact of their activities on the ground, and they warned against overestimating the effects induced by their initiatives. Most of them are small or medium size and focus on one specific type of activity or development project. They might thus have a greater impact in terms of setting up models and of drawing attention to a specify issue than in quantitative terms.

It is also important to differentiate their impact at the economic and development level, especially on the integration of migrants in host societies and on local development in countries of origin, from their impact at the political level, for instance on peace processes in their home countries. For example,

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there is a wide recognition at the policy and political levels that remittances sent back home can have a strong economic and development impact at the local level. Collective remittances are often presented as a solution for development, but so far there has been no systematic and thorough assessment of their real economic impact. In fact, the impact and amount of family remittances is generally far greater than those of â&#x20AC;&#x153;collectiveâ&#x20AC;? remittances, namely remittances channelled via civil society organizations. The amount of money gathered via these organizations is very modest and symbolic with regard to development activities, especially as compared to what is sent directly by families. Family remittances are primarily used for consumption purposes and thus also contribute to economic development because they allow families to buy food, to pay for education, health and housing expenses. In the case of Kosovo, for instance, it is very interesting to see that most migrants are sending remittances and that most Kosovo inhabitants are receiving remittances. In such a small country, the sending of remittances at the individual level could thus almost be assimilated to a collective phenomenon. Another important thing to recall is that, in the case of Kosovo at least, migrants and civil society organizations send money back home, but not only: remittances also take the shape of cars, trucks, clothes and other kinds of materials that play a major role in stabilising the situation in Kosovo by engaging its inhabitants in practical projects, for instance reconstruction ones. But even in such cases where remittances are significant, social and cultural contributions made by transnational communities may be more important than remittances per se, for instance via an exchange of ideas. More generally, there seems to be a need to stress the existing link between development and conflict transformation; development projects can contribute to stabilization â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or hamper it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as surely as political ones. The issue of the degree of inclusiveness of these development projects is particularly important in this perspective, as, for instance, the place where an infrastructure is built has an impact (positive or negative) on the relations between communities while still contributing to local development.

It is way more difficult to trace the political impact of the activities implemented by civil society organizations representing transnational communities.

The potential role of civil society organizations in this field is often in fact quite modest, because even if they can in principle do a lot they are facing many difficulties and obstacles such as marginalisation and opposition from

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

the home government, especially in the case of high intensity conflicts. What is more, the research conducted within the frame of the Infocon project showed (as the one done by the Diaspeace project) that conflict mitigation is not the top priority of these organizations which, by and large, prefer to focus on development, cooperation or education projects. Many organizations have the feeling that getting involved in conflict resolution activities can be tricky and in any case extremely difficult and complex, because conflict is dynamic and leads to contested understandings of peace and reconciliation.

Therefore, when some of them engage in political activities, they are often seen as contentious and accused of fuelling the conflict instead of contributing to its resolution. Civil society actors also stress the fact that “peace” might mean different things according to the scale that is adopted (for instance, in the case of Kosovo, peace in Mitrovica, in Kosovo, in the Balkans, etc.). Thus, “peace” as seen and conceptualized by national and international policy-makers and stake-holders often bears a different meaning than what civil society organizations are looking for in their local programmes. It does not mean that civil society organizations representing transnational communities cannot contribute to stabilization of conflict-prone societies, though. If one moves away from idealized conceptions of peace, diaspora organisations provide opportunities for free speech, as well as an easier access to media and international organizations than organisations in home countries, especially for minority and/or oppressed groups. In that sense, civil society organizations contribute to the establishment of dialogue, which is usually seen as a crucial step towards the pacification of conflict relations. Most of the civil society organizations that participated in the Infocon project are, however, cautious with regard to the impact of these dialogue activities: according to them, one should not expect dialogue to necessarily lead to consensus but to the positive expression of disagreements. The latter should already be considered as an achievement in itself.

A second challenge lies with pressures for institutionalisation and networking. Many civil society organizations, if they wish to receive governmental and international funding, are encouraged to tighten their links with other organizations and funding agencies. For instance, over the past years and even decades, under the pressure of the government and funding agencies that felt that organizations focusing on development issues were too numerous, Dutch civil society organizations involved in development work have been

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clustering and forming networks. There are some obvious risks related to such a move, because the organizations participating in these networks might be imposed an agenda by the funding agencies and therefore get involved in a field they do not necessarily approve of, such as forced return migration.

Other risks involve loosing along the way some specificities,for instance by becoming a professional development organization instead of a development organization focusing on the specific needs of their region of origin or of the specific group of people they represent. Many diaspora organizations also stress the fact that the trend towards institutionalization threatens the informality that characterizes many of their activities, and that is precisely why they are needed and complementary to other types of intervention, such as governmental ones. But if they do not participate in such networks and clusters, they face the risk of seeing their sources of funding dry up. One of the alternatives might be to encourage diaspora organizations to form their own networks in order to stimulate exchanges across types of activities and also across organizations originating from different regions. In that sense, â&#x20AC;&#x153;going from transnational to internationalâ&#x20AC;?, namely linking up with and being involved in a series of countries rather than focusing on one country of origin and/or one country of settlement only, is seen as an alternative to government-led networks. This strategy would also allow diaspora organizations to go beyond the interests related only to their home/host country, for instance by creating links on the basis of professional affiliation or on the type of activities they wish to implement. Such a strategy would also favour the setting up of coherent and strong initiatives across a series of civil society organizations and increase the level of information sharing between them, hence reinforcing their position and bargaining power.

At a more general level, most civil society organizations face the dilemma of bonding or bridging â&#x20AC;&#x201D; namely either bond with similar organizations or organizations representing the same transnational community, or bridge the gap and link up with organizations of a different nature or representing another transnational community, and especially a community with whom they hitherto had a difficult relation. Each option has its advantages and shortcomings, but among those whose aim is to foster dialogue and conflict resolution among transnational communities and in the countries of origin, many wonder whether bonding actually helps or prevents bridging.

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

Another underlying challenge lies in the attitudes of the homeland vis-‘-vis diaspora organizations, especially when these are seen as opposed to the policies of the government in the country of origin. Examples where homeland authorities have resisted the involvement of civil society organizations in political but also development activities are numerous. This trend is particularly noticeable for divided diasporas or diasporas made up of members of groups that are opposed in the home country, such as in the cases of Rwanda or Kosovo.

Some civil society organizations are, for instance, worried about what they see as a wish of home governments to try to monitor and control diaspora activities. More specifically, the creation of ministries or offices of diaspora, or the adoption of laws on diaspora — such as the Law on Diaspora adopted in Kosovo — are seen as possible tools for controlling diaspora activities, or even as ways of defining the boundaries of legitimate diaspora activities.

Beyond the fear of being instrumentalized by home governments, other more pragmatic concerns underlie the will of civil society organizations to avoid too much interference from the home country, such as the need to preserve the very high internal diversity of transnational communities in which different generations, opinions, levels of engagement and politicization can be found. What is more, there is now a wide recognition that very different organisations are active in the so-called transnational space, all of which do not belong to a specific ‘diaspora’ but rather represent various circles of support and interest in the affairs of a specific State or social or cultural group.

Any attempt at framing or controlling the activities of such diverse groups therefore runs the risk of impoverishing them. Of course, in the eyes of the concerned home governments, the objective is not to control the activities of these civil society organizations but rather to organize them and, sometimes, to encourage via diaspora organizations investments or tourism in the countries of origin. Needless to say, the relations between a specific transnational

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community and its home government obviously change across groups and even over time, so that generalizing is incredibly complex.

For the civil society organizations focusing on conflict resolution activities, both in the countries of origin and in the countries of settlement, reaching genuine reconciliation stands out as the main challenge. Most researchers and policy-makers recognize that reconciliation is always very difficult to achieve.

Beyond the very important issue of timing — when should the reconciliation activities be organized? can they be launched in a top-down manner, or should we wait for bottom-up initiatives, testifying for a genuine will for reconciliation? —, most actors agree that it has to be a win-win process without taboo topics. What is more, in order to promote a genuine “re-conciliation”, a prior situation of conciliation seems to be needed, when in fact in many cases this never existed. Many diaspora organizations thus have the feeling to have to start this reconciliation process “from scratch”, with very limited means of action. Thus, if reconciliation is often stated as the ultimate goal, the pragmatic focus is often put on the establishment of dialogue between transnational communities originating from the same country and between the communities remaining in the home country. Dialogue has therefore become an objective in itself, while still standing as an intermediary and more realistic step towards the more distant objective of reconciliation.

After a conflict, one of the main difficulties lies in reaching an agreement about what has happened, because it often determines who can be recognized as a victim or not, and who has to be judged. But there are often confusions and seemingly too high expectations about “establishing the truth”: on the one hand, because home governments sometimes tend to impose their own version of the events and therefore of what stands as an “official truth” — in order to serve their own political interests, or in order to genuinely favour reconciliation —, and, on the other hand, because each conflict party has difficulty in accepting that the other’s perception of what has happened might be held as “true” as its own. Most diaspora organizations do not represent all conflict parties, and some of them face opposition from home governments and struggle in establishing channels for dialogue that would include everyone — though some of them have been successful, as has been described in the previous chapters.

The concept of “apologies” also proves to be controversial for most diaspora organizations, as it is difficult to determine who should apologize, to

Infocon Mousebook | Main results

whom, and within which frame: Should apologies be part of the juridical process or take place outside of it? Should they be part of some social or political process? What role might civil society organizations play in facilitating or even enabling apologies to take place?. . .

More generally, the issue of justice also appears to be a cross-cutting issue for all civil society organizations involved in peacebuilding activities. It seems difficult to establish what form of justice — reparative or punitive — is the most appropriate in each case, and what are the potential relations between these various forms of justice and the search for “truth” and reconciliation. It is generally thought among civil society activists that justice is mostly important for reparation purposes, not just for punishment. While justice should be fighting impunity, most diaspora organizations involved in peacebuilding consider that it should also foster reconciliation, and hence address the root causes of the conflict. However, the exact role civil society organizations might play in these processes is unclear. In this respect, lobbying for the respect of human rights in the countries of origin seems to be one of the most promising avenues explored by diaspora organizations.

Promoting the respect of human rights indeed allows them to put pressure on the governments of their countries of origin while using a type of discourse and vocabulary that are appealing to an international audience.

What is more, the language of human rights might help them to build further links with other transnational organizations, thus favouring the “bonding and bridging” objective evoked above. Several civil society organizations also stated their wish to contribute to the work of various International Criminal Tribunals, such as the ones set up for ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as the tasks of these tribunals are deemed essential for the stabilization of these post-conflict societies.

Finally, the issue of accountability seems to represent a major challenge for all civil society organizations representing transnational communities. Accountability is the key to credibility and also, up to a certain extent, to access to funding by Western agencies often wary of supporting organizations that do not have a strong popular basis. It is very difficult to determine who exactly these organizations represent and how representative they are. Most diaspora organizations strive to demonstrate that they represent significant sections of transnational communities, but not all of them are very rooted, and in many cases it is very difficult to assess how representative they are of

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groups in the countries of origin. What is more, all diaspora groups display a high internal diversity, and there are significant differences in opinion and behaviour between diaspora groups, within them and also between diaspora groups and populations in the countries of origin. Civil society organizations often offer fora to the most mobilized and politicized, and therefore do not necessarily represent the majority. Needless to say, a single organization can hardly account for all types of opinions, claims and strategies.

In any case, it seems crucial for home societiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; authorities to engage these civil society organizations in political means such as debate, advocacy or political mobilization, because it helps them to progress towards their objective of establishing channels for exchange and dialogue between communities here (in the countries of settlement) and there (in the countries of origin). Last but not least, it also allows them to further the integration of their members in the societies of settlement. In that sense, European societies provide useful fora for dialogue: they offer opportunities for exchanges that might not be possible in home countries, and this might in turn prove useful for the resolution of home conflicts.

Chapter

3

Impact and dissemination activities Given its unique structure and research design, Infocon differs from traditional research projects. Instead of focusing exclusively on scientific publications, the project attempted to bring the research community and transnational community CSOs together on a common platform. The often vivid discussion between these two “worlds” can be regarded as an impact on its own right, since CSOs are typically not included at all in research designs or fieldwork.

In particular, an important impact of the project was to remind all stakeholders how idiosyncratic all conflicts are, and that generalizations across different regions and diasporas can often only be made at the expense of oversimplification and excessive abstraction. Instead of proposing one-sizefits-all solutions, the project recommended the improvement of processes that potentially lead to beneficial transformations of conflicts in Europe and the world. These processes include, among others, dialogue, advocacy, lobbying and integration. Through its dissemination activities, Infocon has not only contributed to identifying and raising awareness of process of conflict transformation, but also actively supported individual initiatives aiming at the resolution of specific conflicts (e.g. Infocon’s support of the Inter-Rwandan Dialogue in Brussels in December 2010).

A follow-up projected, currently prepared under the lead of one the project’s civil society partners (SMS), will be explicitly based on the lessons learned from Infocon. In particular, this includes lessons concerning the

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balance between research and civil society organizations in terms of workload and budgets. Taking into account a criticism that traditional research projects are biased towards university partners, the follow-up project will emphasise even more than Infocon the activities for which CSOs have a comparative advantage, such as training and workshop activities. This is likely to improve further the balance between all stakeholders in co-operative projects and take advantage of the complementarities between research and civil society partners.

In addition to the scientific publications presented below, a major impact of the project was to raise awareness of differences in perception among university partners and civil society organizations. The project helped examining what CSOs expect from the research community in order for scientific findings to be helpful and beneficial to their day-to-day activities. The exchange between the different stakeholders of the project has led to a common publication, the Infocon Mousebook, in which challenges faced by diaspora organizations and lessons learned from the project are condensed in a handon document targeted at practitioners in civil society organizations, research institutions and public administrations dealing with conflict and migration issues.

In order to take the impact of the project beyond traditional audiences of scholars and experts, the project management has developed a series of innovative tools that facilitate the dissemination of the work. These tools include not only the above mentioned “Mousebook”, but also annual conflict resolution work shops, broad on-line dissemination of research outputs and a unique on-line platform targeted at transnational communities (“Here and There”). Below, the main dissemination activities are summarised in turn.

Conferences and workshops Lille (France), May 6-7, 2009: Transnational communities and conflict. A civil society approach.

The first Infocon conference was titled “Transnational Communities and Conflict: A Civil Society Approach — Conflict resolution from below?” and focused on the cross-border dimension of communities linked by similar backgrounds but confronted to multicultural societies modifies both the regions of origin and the cities of settlement of those communities. The conference has

Infocon Mousebook | Impact and dissemination activities

been organized in coordination with the Internationalist Foundation, Uni´ versit´e Laval and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille. Moreover, the DIASPEACE project join the debate and, in coordination with the Internationalist Foundation, organized a workshop about the Here and There internet platform and the place for new technologies in community based research.

The two-day conference explored different perspectives of transnationalism and conflict resolution. The invited specialists, from both academia and civil society, interacted with the audience in the quest to understand the transnational actors’ role in solving conflicts both in their regions of origin and their current cities of settlement.

Key note speakers from the International Crisis Group and the Mairie de Lille enriched the discussion on the Infocon case studies with their respective international (ICG) and local (Mairie de Lille) viewpoints.

Another important element of the event in Lille was the setting-up of three conflict analysis work shops, each of which dealing in turn with one of the three regions of origin (Turkey, Great Lakes, Kosovo).

Again, external experts (journalists, activists, researchers) were invited to participate in these work shops.

Nijmegen (Netherlands), April 22 and 23, 2010: Diaspora Organisations and Science. Two Worlds, One Mission — A Dialogue on Migration and Conflict.

The second Infocon conference in Nijmegen was the occasion to present the main research deliverables of the project. In addition, the two-day event included a second conflict resolution work shop on Kosovo and a debate on the role of migrant organizations in development processes. This event was organized under the title ‘Without Romance no Future?’ A debate on the integration of diaspora organisations in the development sector” and asked questions like “Do diaspora organisations and development organisations ac-

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tually want to work together?” and “What is the actual surplus value of diaspora organisations compared to development organisations?” Participants of the debate included directors of several migrants’ and development organisations from the Netherlands.

The conflict resolution workshop on Kosovo builds on a previous dialogue experience moderated by Prof.

Hugh Miall in Lille in May 2009.

The workshop is based on the idea that if the parties cannot agree, a dialogue can still help to assess the possibility of CSO engagement and their strategic possibilities for conflict transformation and resolution.

Video footage of the debate on migrant cooperation in development and the conflict resolution workshop on Kosovo is available on the project website1 .

Brussels (Belgium), December 16-19, 2010: Diasporas and conflict transformation — final conference of the DIASPEACE and Infocon projects The international event was the occasion of presenting and discussing the results of more than two years of intensive research on diaspora communities in Europe and around the world. The dense conference programme reflected not only the diversity of research and policy questions in both projects (participation of diasporas in peacebuilding and development, diaspora-based dialogues, diasporas and NGOs etc), but also the different communities under study (Horn of Africa, Kosovo, Great Lakes region, etc).

The objective of the event was to create a discussion forum for the different strands of research conducted by Infocon and DIASPEACE. These two projects together unite more than ten European universities and around twenty civil society organizations around the issue of the role of diasporas in different conflicts in Europe and the world.

1

www.infocon-project.org/output/nijmegen-conference

Infocon Mousebook | Impact and dissemination activities

The conference has allowed both teams to present their results to an international audience made up of university researchers and students, policy makers and members of the civil society. The Infocon results have be summarised during the conference by the project’s research director, Elise F´eron (University of Kent). One of the main outcomes underlined during the conference was the distinction between two types of “capital” that diasporas and diaspora organizations are endowed with: so-called “bridging capital” and “bonding capital”. While diasporic communities in Europe appear to be strong in creating links within their respective communities (i.e. they develop bonding capital), they might be less active in developing bridges and relations with other communities (i.e. they do not focus on bonding capital). The ensuing discussions at the conference helped clarifying that this analytical distinction could explain why most of the diaspora organization interviewed by Infocon have only engaged to a very limited extent in processes of reconciliation and conflict resolution.

The DIASPEACE results presented at the conference in Brussels appear to confirm this view. A major result of the project underlined by the German scholar Andrea Warnecke is that the dialogue between the representatives of diasporas in European societies is rather limited in continuity and comprehensiveness and that the European public is in general perceived by diasporas as having a limited and superficial vision of the conflicts in countries of origin. An encompassing dialogue on the transformation of conflicts is therefore bound by a lack of information and analysis among European decision makers.

In addition to the presentation of research findings, the conference programme dedicated several time slots to other experts in the domain of migra-

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tion and conflict analysis. Among the external speakers were Nicholas van Hear (University of Oxford), Jolle Demmers (Utrecht University), Jeremy Lester (DG Development), Alexandar Mitic (Project Director at the European Center for Development and Peace in Belgrade), Vladimir Radomirovic (Analyst at Center for Strategic Alternatives), Ylli Hoxha (Foreign Policy Club Prishtina) and Lawrence Meredith (DG Enlargement).

The Brussels conference was framed by several side events on the theme of diasporas. In particular, a novel exposition of the Canadian photographer David Brulotte (Stigmat Agency) underlined the individuality and diversity within every diaspora communities with portraits of migrants taken in Europe, Asia and Africa.

In addition, on December 16 and 17 many conference participants joined the cultural evenings organized by the non-profit NGO “Les enfants d’Afrique”, including traditional food, concerts and African dances.

Participation in external conferences All Infocon partners have been encouraged to participate in external conference on themes related to Infocon. Events in which Infocon participation appear to have been particularly relevant include: DIASPEACE kick-off conference on May 6, 2008 in Brussels.

GoverScience seminar for Civil Society Organisations, October 9-10 2008 in Brussels.

Conference on Human Rights in the European and Global Perspective on December 16, 2008 in Brussels

Infocon Mousebook | Impact and dissemination activities SHUR conference: Human Rights in Conflict: The Role of Civil Society on June 4-6, 2009 in Rome Here and There seminar organised by the DIASPEACE project at the African Diaspora Policy Centre (ADPC) on July 3, 2009 in Amsterdam SciencesPo/CERI conference “Diasporas and Conflict Importation in Urban Settings” on December 18, 2009 in Paris ISA Annual Convention on February 17-20, 2010 in New Orleans ECPR joint sessions of workshops “Cross-Border Migrant Organizations - Rethinking National Integration Policy” on March 22-27, 2010 in M¨ unster

Publications The project’s flagship publications summarize all findings on each of its three thematic fields, respectively. These are: Transnational Communities and Conflict Policies (2010). Hugh Miall, Anna Ornert and Dogus Simsek, with contributions by Flutura Kusari, Armend Bekaj and Liridon Shurdani. Infocon Deliverable Number 3.

Factors Influencing Migrants’ Engagement with Transnational Economic Activities in Post-Conflict Countries? (2010). Nienke Regts, Marieke van Houte and Ruerd Ruben. Infocon Deliverable Number 4.

Beyond the Core Conflict: New Minorities, New Confrontations and New Policies (2010). Nathalie Perrin and Marco Martiniello. Infocon Deliverable Number 5.

Infocon CSOs contributed to each of these three publications (in the case of Miall, Orrnert and Simsek (2010), for instance, the CSO Kosova Young Lawyers made substantial contributions concerning conflict resolution activities in Kosovo). However, several CSO partners ceased the opportunity of consortium meetings to stress the added value of more practically oriented publications that could, for example, used as training materials (SMS

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suggested to produce input for “training-for-trainers”). Given that the overarching objective of Infocon was to produce knowledge that is both scientifically sound and beneficial for the involved civil society partners, the concept of a flagship publication targeted at diaspora organizations emerged and was further elaborated at consortium meetings in Li`ege (2009), Nijmegen (2010) and Brussels (2010). The final outcome was the “Infocon Mousebook”: an on-line handbook with practical information mainly targeted at diaspora organizations engaged in conflict resolution, development or integration activities.

Elise F´eron and Anna Orrnert (editors) (2011). The Challenges Faced

by Diaspora Organizations — and How They can be Addressed. Brussels: Internationalist Foundation.

Indeed, Infocon launched a reflection and debate on the challenges faced by diaspora communities both in their cities of settlement, and in their countries of origin, and how these challenges could be addressed. The Mousebook is the product of such a reflection. The objectives of this publication, a joint collaboration between Infocon’s academic and civil society partners (both contributing to the conceptualization and writing of the following chapters) are to help transnational communities think through critical issues related to their day-to-day engagement with economic development and conflict transformation in home and host societies. As such, it intends to provide very practical guidance (supplemented by case studies in boxes, checklists, etc.) to thinking through and dealing with these issues. It therefore is a mix between “guidelines” and “lessons learned”, which draws on the results of the Infocon research, and tries to highlight the main trends that have been observed.

The dissemination of the Mousebook relies, as the name indicates, mainly on on-line tools (pdf downloads, flipbooks, issuu referencing, placement of links in social media). The Mousebook can be freely accessed at www. infocon-project.org/output/mousebook.

Infocon Mousebook | Impact and dissemination activities

Websites Project website One of the first management activities was to set up an attractive internet website for external and internal communication: all relevant information about Infocon can be found on www.infocon-project.org. The external website has the following features: It provides general information about the project, its objectives and its structure. Users can download the Description of Work and follow its implementation.

All partners are presented, including biographies of key participants and links to the their respective websites.

Users can visit an output section where all documents with Infocon results (e.g. Deliverables, Progress Reports etc) can be downloaded.

A newsletter is regularly published on the website, informing the wider Infocon network on upcoming events and results that have been achieved.

A contact section, including an automatic contact form, facilitates exchange with external stakeholders.

The internal website is only accessible to Infocon participants who have been provided with individual user names and passwords. The most important features of the internal website are: An announcement system, which allows to communicate important information to all partners, including automatic email notification of new announcements Discussion fora on specific topics (e.g. the transversal questionnaire, implementation issues during fieldwork etc).

A document repository that allows to classify uploaded documents by work packages, region of origin and city of settlement. In addition, repository with a general bibliography has been created. All uploaded document can be tagged with free keywords, which make the document

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repository particularly user-friendly. In addition, documents can be tagged as being confidential, so that all partners are aware that the document in question is not to be disseminated beyond the consortium.

Both the internal and the external website have been created with upto-date web technology in the context of on-line co-operation and external dissemination. Particular attention has been paid to interactivity and userfriendliness. The following features of the website underline this emphasis: The external website provides RSS feeds that interested user can subscribed to. The RSS feeds send automatic updates as soon as the content new content is made available.

Users can easily subscribe to the Infocon newsletter by simply typing in their email address on the website’s front-page. At the time of writing there are around 250 subscribers of the newsletter.

The knowledge platform “Here & There” One of Infocon’s major goals is to provide strategic tools for Civil Society Organisations. For this purpose, we developed an innovative communication tool: the internet platform Here & There, accessible at www.here-there. org. Here & There allows organizational networking via the exchange of knowledge related to transnational communities. Transnational community organisations and also research institutes or governmental actors use Here & There to present themselves in tailored spaces and exchange information.

Here & There makes use of innovative Web 2.0 technological features to foster active participation and frequent visits of the target community.

Here & There was launched in March 2009. Since then, all features of the platform have been continuously improved, often in co-operation with the FP7 project Diaspeace. The Infocon management employed different communication channels to promote the platform. In co-operation with Diaspeace, information e-mails and postcards have been largely disseminated to civil society organisations, research institutions and policy makers. Infocon also engaged in face-to-face promotion of Here & There, for instance at the Diaspeace seminar at the African Diaspora Policy Center in Amsterdam on July 3, 2009.

Infocon Mousebook | Impact and dissemination activities

In order to keep improving the functionalities offered by Here & There, Infocon works closely with the French IT service provider Tymate, who has also been charged with the regular maintenance of the website.

Other impact and dissemination channels Infocon support for a session of the Inter-Rwandan Dialogue Parallel to the official programme of the Infocon conference on December 17, 2010, a session of the “Highly Inclusive Intra-Rwandan Dialogue” was held with support of Infocon. The Intra-Rwandan Dialogue was founded

by Isidore Munyakazi, a Tutsi residing the United States, and Elysee Ndayisaba, a Hutu residing in Belgium. The goal was to engage in dialogue with the aim of creating ‘true mutual understanding’ in order to arrive ‘at common interpretations of a given matter.’ It was stressed that arriving at a common interpretation doesn’t mean that the parties involved in the dialogue always have to agree with each other; rather, they need to have the same interpretation of the matter they disagree on. Dialogue differs from reconciliation because the latter implies re-establishing harmony among the people who have previously been divided by conflict, harmony that has been regained by asking for and granting forgiveness. Participants will include Hutu, Tutsi and Twa individuals from political parties and Rwandan civil organisations from the diaspora in African countries, European countries and from the United States of America. Regular “youngster meetings” In order to foster the coordination between the research teams in the intervals between consortium meetings, the PhD students of the project met regularly with the management team in Brussels (Nathalie Perrin, Marieke van Houte, Anna Ornert, Jan Hanrath and Stephan Kampelmann participated in these “youngster meetings”). The meetings helped to evaluate the progress on the different work packages, to exchange knowledge on diasporarelated issues, as well as to initiate and develop other joint publications based on Infocon research. During the second reporting period, three youngster meetings were held on July 16 and September 21, 2009 and March 22, 2010.

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Co-operation with DIASPEACE Since the beginning of the Infocon project, the relevance of a cooperation with the project DIASPEACE was stressed by the all involved parties and several synergies between both projects were identified and targeted. Therefore, several steps were taken in order to build the cooperation between the two research projects, mainly regarding the internet platform Here and There (managed by DIASPEACE partner BICC, the Bonn International Centre for Conversion) and the organization of a joint final conference.

In July 2008, a joint Intranet system was set up in order to facilitate the share of research finding between the two sister projects and highlighting potential synergies with DIASPEACE by linking and promoting similar research interests and conceptual frame; commenting papers, discussion on conclusions/recommendations; joint dissemination, events and publications.

It requires the same user name and password as the Infocon Intranet to login. Many relevant documents that interest to both projects have being shared through that system.

Newsletter service and RSS feed The management team created a newsletter system which allows the management team to create and disseminate the Infocon newsletter to a wide audience. Since June 2008, the management team has circulated the newsletter a monthly intervals, and the service will be continued after the official end of the project in April 2011. At time of the submission of this report, twelve issues of the newsletter were released. Currently, the newsletter system counts around 250 subscribed readers, representing an important dissemination channel for the project. Past editions of the newsletter are available in the news section of the project website.

Find out more

Contact details

Stephan Kampelmann c/o Internationalist Foundation Avenue de Cortenbergh, 16 P.O.Box 75, BE-1040 Brussels-Schuman, Belgium

Project website â&#x20AC;&#x153;Here & Thereâ&#x20AC;? platform

www.infocon-project.org www.here-there.org

List of Acronyms CBO CSO EU HIIRD INFOCON NGO SMS TC TCOs

Community-Based Organization Civil Society Organization European Union Highly Inclusive Inter-Rwandan Dialogue International Civil Society Forum on Conflicts Non-Governmental Organization Stichting Mondiale Samenleving Transnational Community Transnational Community Organizations

European societies host a variety of diasporas that are potentially instrumental in preventing and resolving conflicts in Europe and the world.

These transnational communities offer unique opportunities for constructive dialogue, opportunities that could be exploited more effectively. But how exactly should the European Union and its Member States go about doing that? This question was at the heart of the Infocon research project.

Combining the complementary strengths of researchers and civil society organisations (CSOs) in several countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Kosovo), Infocon has produced a concise set of observations and recommendations that provide Europe’s policy making community with some guidance on a matter of broad public concern.

Infocon focused on diasporas representing conflicted communities in Turkey, Kosovo, and the Great Lakes region of Africa. Interviews were carried out with members of those communities both in their country of origin and in various European host cities where they are strongly represented — Amsterdam (Randstad), Berlin, Brussels, and London. Thus the findings are drawn from populations representing a diverse set of regions and issues.

Infocon is a joint project of Akagera-Rhein e.V. (Germany), Centre d’Etudes de l’Ethnicit´e et des Migrations/Universit´e de Li`ege (Belgium), Conflict Analysis Research Centre/University of Kent (UK), CRAN (Netherlands), Inef/ Universit¨at Duisburg Essen (Germany), Institut d’´etudes politiques de Lille (France), Kosova Young Lawyers (Kosovo), Minority Rights Group International (UK), SOS Rwanda-Burundi (Belgium), Navend e.V. (Germany), Stichting Mondiale Samenleving (Netherlands), Universit´e Laval (Canada), and Zentrum f¨ ur T¨ urkeistudien (Germany).

Co-ordinated by the Internationalist Foundation (Netherlands) and the Universit´e Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

www.infocon-project.org/output