Embedded Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Obligation: The Ghanaian Diaspora and Development

Abstract

The paper analyses how identities and obligations operate within the spaces of transnational communities and how this affects development. Within spatially diffuse communities identities are fluid and overlapping, as are the obligations to multiple others -be that kin, ethnic group or nation -in different localities. The paper is concerned with the institutions through which these identities are formed and obligations are realised. These include families, clans, hometown associations, and religious organisations, which link people 'abroad' to people 'at home'. I understand these spaces as a form of public sphere involving a 'deterritorialised' citizenship, which has been termed 'embedded cosmopolitanism'. In this way obligations are not legally defined but operate as part of the moral universe of those concerned. The case study is based upon recent fieldwork on Ghanaians in the UK and their connections to other Ghanaians outside Ghana and to those at home. Research reveals how these complex networks of affiliation operate as well as the ways in which the state seeks to 'capture' support from them and how migrants selectively redefine both ethnic identities and family boundaries.

Unsettling connections: transnational networks, development and African home associations

“…Research has also shown that transnational migrants have undertaken a range of large-and small-scale ventures in their home places. These include support for education and training, building homes, fundraising and making charitable donations, organizing group remittances for public goods or infrastructure projects, trading with and investing in businesses at home, paying taxes, and transferring technology and knowledge (Al-Ali et al 2001;Mohan 2006;Mohan and Zack-Williams 2002;Vertovec 2004). Around the world, flows have been amplified through engagement with government programmes.…”

“…Work on African transnationalism, in particular, may use the idea of the 'network' as a heuristic device while nevertheless recognizing that networks do not exist a priori as 'unitary actors' (Faist 2008) for policy-makers simply to co-opt and utilize (Grillo and Riccio 2004;Mazzucato 2005Mazzucato , 2008. Others highlight the frailty and ephemerality of transnational connections, emphasizing the social relations on which networks are built, including social ties and relations of trust and obligation (Horst 2004;McGregor 2007;Mohan 2006;Riccio 2001). Simone (2003), for example, refers to temporary networks or 'provisional assemblages'.…”

“…However, as intercontinental emigration from Africa has increased over the last two decades, so some home associations have themselves become transnational as new 'branches' have been established around the world. They have consequently come to the attention of scholars interested in transnational flows of people, money and ideas, and the relationship between these flows and development in Africa (Kabki et al 2004;Mohan 2006). This process of transnationalization is highly uneven in space and time, but some of these associations have achieved visibility in Europe or North America and, as a result, development professionals have identified them as potential development actors.…”

Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

“…Traditionally, cosmopolitans have been conceptualised as elites (Beck, 2002;Hannerz, 2007) who "pursue refined consumption, and are open to all forms of otherness" (Hiebert, 2002, p212), but various scholars now suggest that global elites ironically have limited engagement with the "other", and a "rather 2 restricted corridor of physical movement" (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002, p7; also Calhoun, 2002) between global cities. A recent surge of scholarly work on migration focussing on migrants" transnational spatial practices (Kelly and Lusis, 2006;Wilding, 2007), social and political identities Mohan, 2006;Vertovec, 2001), and relationships with the State (Koser, 2007;Leitner and Ehrkamp, 2006;Morris, 1997;Zierhofer, 2007), suggest that working-class migrants while maintaining "intense linkages and exchanges with sending and receiving contexts" (Vertovec, 2001, p575) also perform varieties of cosmopolitan behaviours. Scholars now suggest that these "working-class cosmopolitans" (Werbner, 1999) are open to difference neither as an ethico-political project, nor as conscious choice, but as a practical orientation towards "getting by" -one that requires a strategic engagement with others through coerced choices in order to survive in new environments.…”

Revisiting the politics of belonging in Cameroon

“…This blurring of belonging often stems from the fact that the relationship between people and place is not always paramount in the way individuals imagine themselves. The 'identity' of any individual often draws on other territories and on gender, kinship, religion, profession and education, as well as a rural 'ethnic homeland' (Mohan 2006). Actually-existing 'homes' are often experienced as multiple and mobile and are based on a complex calculus of family, ethnicity, language, lifecourse and work.…”