BY STAFFF REPOTER
Ethiopia has centuries old history, beautiful natural scenery and resources for which it could have gained a lot of publicity in the world. Yet due to the negative incidents like civil war, drought and famine that took place in the country for decades, it had lost its reputation and became known for negative images.
Correcting these negative images and depicting the real picture of the country fell in the hands of the current generation and the government. The two are undertaking the building of the country’s image as well as safeguarding the national interest of the country through all available means. Among them is public diplomacy.
According to diplomacy.edu, globally, some 215 million people are migrants (i.e. the first generation of those that have gone to foreign countries). Subsequent generations sometimes merge into the local population, but often retain their connections with the home states, over many generations. Today diasporas are active in international affairs. The interconnected areas of providing citizens with consular services, and working with the diaspora, are now priorities in international affairs.
Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world with a large number of diaspora communities in various parts of the world. In his study of the role of Diasproa in Public diplomacy, Yonas Sertse Dengel explains that Public diplomacy (PD) and the involvement of the Diaspora are imperative instruments of achieving image building of a nation. Image building is fundamental for contemporary Ethiopia.
The gloomy image left by the serious drought, over extended civil wars and pervasive HIV /AIDS, despite several efforts and the recent vivid economic revival, couldn’t change the devastated image of Ethiopia. The inheritance of the Ethiopian famine of 1984 and the Live Aid event that followed recorded a bad photographic representation of the country in the mind of majority people over the past century up to the present day, (Clark, 2007). This scar put greater obstacle against influx of tourism, and spacious Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Looking at the effects of migration on the economic aspect of their home countries, governments had acknowledged the huge chunk of remittances coming from their migrants which boosts the nation’s growth. According to the World Bank, in 2008, about $338 billion were sent by migrants into their homelands. On the other hand, economic benefits is just a small part of the whole story, for the reason that migrants also bring with them “social remittances” equally distributed to the host societies and to their homelands. Social remittances include norms, practices, identities, and social capital or the skills, which affect their encounters in their host countries and the latter are also being sent back to promote development in their countries of origin (Levitt, 2001). The Political, Social and Other Dimensions Political interests and activities within diasporas are not new. Throughout history, migrant communities had been engaged politically into their
host societies. Some of the political activities that they are engaged into are the following: 1. Different diaspora-based associations may lobby host countries to form policies in favor of a homeland or to challenge a homeland government; 2. Influence homelands through their support or opposition of the latter’s governments; 3. Give financial and other types of support to political parties, social movements, and civil society organizations; and 4. Diasporas can even sponsor terrorism or the perpetuation of conflict into their homeland. Examples of such politically active diaspora communities are the Jewish-, Greek-, Cuban-, and Armenian-American associations that represent some of the strongest lobbies in Washington, D.C. International diaspora-based groups sometimes engage in mass protests and consciousness-raising activities about homeland-related issues.
On the other hand, homeland nation-states themselves may reach out to engage the political interests of their diaspora populations through the creation of provisions for dual citizenship and/or nationality. Today, there is now an upward global trend in the popularity of dual citizenship/nationality, both in terms of the people having it and the states allowing it. During elections, diasporas or migrants also have huge political influences towards their respective homelands through the process of “absentee voting”.
In migrant-sending countries, dual citizenship has been difficult to push through governments since local politicians tend to see the disadvantages, for they often feel that “absentee voting” might give too much influence to people living outside the country, especially if there is a huge size of diasporic communities.
Individual diasporas and Ethiopian diaspora communities in various parts of the world are also assisting their country of origin in public diplomacy. Especially at a time when the country was baffled by attempts of foreign meddling by other countries and international organizations, the diaspora community in all corners of the world have shown their strong stance in safeguarding the interest of the country.
For instance, Ethiopia has encountered a lot of diplomatic pressures from some countries and organizations due to its firm commitment to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Recently too, many countries of the west and other institutions have posed severe challenges against the country as they attempted to intervene in the country’s sovereign issue of subduing a terrorist group, TPLF from launching destructive acts against the wellbeing of the nation.
At this moment the diaspora community have carried out demonstrations, public meetings, media campaigns and conversations with peoples representatives of their respective countries of residence to refrain from meddling in the sovereign rights of the country.
Their struggle has been in most cases fruitful as many active diaspora members witnessed. Hence the country should further uphold its efforts of exploiting the potential from its diaspora community in winning public diplomacy success.
The Ethiopian Herald October 26/2021
