Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Senegalese Citizens Abroad

Abstract

This chapter presents the main areas of engagement of the state of Senegal with its diaspora. In the first part, it looks at the main institutions and policies geared towards the diaspora. In the second part, the chapter focuses specifically on diaspora policies in the area of social protection (unemployment, health care, family benefits, pensions, guaranteed minimum resources). If Senegal falls in the category of pioneer countries for some aspects of emigration policies (ministerial institutions, external voting, political representation), its policy for the diaspora in the field of social protection is rather scanty. As a developing country facing many structural economic issues, scaling up social protection in the homeland remains the top priority for the Government, relegating social protection for the diaspora as a secondary policy concern for now. Recent governmental policies towards the diaspora have focused primarily on tapping the resources of the diaspora in order to increase its contribution to economic development and facilitate productive investment by Senegalese abroad in their home country.

Situating ‘migration as adaptation’ discourse and appraising its relevance to Senegal’s development sector

“…Administrative actors devote consistent budget allocations to increase 'diaspora action' as a motor for 'sustainable development' in high-growth sectors such as agriculture, as planned in the Plan Sénégal Emergent, the country's mid-to long-term socio-economic development strategy (2014-2024-2035). But, strikingly, our interviews and analysis of governmental reports find that Senegalese governmental diaspora mobilisation discourse has drawn very few explicit links with environmental issues and climate change (see also Diallo and Renou, 2015;Smith, 2020;Toma and Kabbanji, 2017).…”

“…In doing this, stakeholders draw on a well-established 'diaspora mobilisation' discourse from policy narratives of international development organisations (Åkesson and Eriksson-Baaz, 2015). It has been a government priority in Senegal for almost two decades (Fall, 2010;Mahieu, 2015;Sinatti and Horst, 2015), where great importance is attached to diaspora management, integration of returnees and management of professional migration (Adam et al, 2019;Diedhiou, 2014;EC, 2016a;Smith, 2020). Administrative actors devote consistent budget allocations to increase 'diaspora action' as a motor for 'sustainable development' in high-growth sectors such as agriculture, as planned in the Plan Sénégal Emergent, the country's mid-to long-term socio-economic development strategy (2014-2024-2035).…”