2021/06/28 by Shubha Kamala Prasad, Filip Savatic · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Diaspora, migration, transnational identity #Labor Movements and Unions #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1537592721000979
openalex publication_date 2021/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Why do some immigrant diasporas in the United States (U.S.) establish foreign policy interest groups while others do not? While scholars have demonstrated that diasporic interest groups often successfully influence U.S. foreign policy, we take a step back to ask why only certain diasporas attempt to do so in the first place. We argue that two factors increase the likelihood of diaspora mobilization: a community’s experience with democratic governance and conflict in its country of origin. We posit that these conditions make it more likely that political entrepreneurs emerge to serve as catalysts for top-down mobilization. To test our hypotheses, we collect and analyze novel data on diasporic interest groups as well as the characteristics of their respective countries of origin. In turn, we conduct the first in-depth case studies of the historical and contemporary Indian-American lobbies, using original archival and interview evidence.