Global Best Practices in Diaspora Engagement: Lessons for Armenia

Governments around the world increasingly see their diasporas not as “lost talent”, but as established assets. Notable success stories facilitating establishment of new sectors, emergency aid relief, academic partnerships and others are explored in this brief, extracting best practices and conditions for success in each.

This brief first tackles background of the issue, and then addresses the common policies and approaches employed by countries globally, and asks authorities to define concrete objectives in terms of expectations of the diaspora, and to consider the motivations and needs of the diaspora itself when considering and evaluating the effectiveness of a proposed initiative. It provides examples first of approaches identified by extensive literature and study of global diaspora engagement and demonstrates the forms which these approaches may take. Following a broad global analysis, it then moves to extract examples from other countries which may be of use in formulating a diaspora strategy for the Republic of Armenia.