Digital technology brings families torn apart by exile together, promotes contact with their loved ones in unknown territory, facilitates administrative procedures, … but it is also a tremendous accelerator of diasporic power.
Knowledge, networks, investments: the new generation is breaking free from its past and mobilizing its strengths to support the development of its country of origin by integrating it into the global dynamic. A web review which echoes this week’s meeting at the Institut du Monde Arabe on June 27th.
A new generation is at work in the African diaspora
$ 60bn was sent to the African continent by 30M Africans in the diaspora in 2014. This is more than official development assistance ($ 56bn) and more than foreign direct investment ($ 50bn).
Beyond its financial strength, the new diasporic generation redoubles its power by freeing itself from its complexes and by embracing the connected international community and its multiple opportunities, as witnessed by Fabien Lawson, Lawyer for the African Diaspora: “It’s a generation interconnected which is freed from social and geographic limitations. She is no longer in the exclusion of others because of her social, geographic, or even ethnic origins. We are indeed observing from the young entrepreneurs whom we support that they seize the advantages of new information and communication technologies, platforms and social networks to create interconnections within the black world and with different parts of the world. ”
“Today digital brings a civilization”
“No country deserves to stay on the sidelines of this dynamic. In our cases, we should succeed in creating bridges with the different continents involved in the African context. ”
For Malian entrepreneur Mohamed Diawara, digital technology is a tremendous opportunity to boost his country’s economy and create jobs that will allow a whole youth to be caught up in violence and terrorism. It is also the path to the sovereignty of all production sectors which are impacted by technological innovations. The challenge is the training and structuring of the ecosystem which must include local forces and diasporic and international partners. For Mohamed Diawara, the Malian state has understood this and is taking this direction.
African diasporas: four powerful women
During the National Days of African Diasporas held in Bordeaux on March 31, women were in the spotlight. Militant, entrepreneurial, influential, mobilizing, their role is fundamental to support the development of the continent. Find 4 portraits in this article from Le Monde Afrique: Senator Leila Aïchi who campaigns for diversity, the African at heart Isabelle Berrier who accompanies the “repats” with Welcoming Diasporas (see the meeting at the IMA on Tuesday, June 27), the Moroccan Noura Moulal who helps expats integrate with her OuiExpat application; and Nancy Traoré, Ivorian by origin, president of the FEDA collective (Women from African diasporas).
Platforms to bring diasporas together
Many initiatives are popping up on the web for diasporas: media, social network, help with setting up, exchanging tips, sharing contacts or even opening up to other diasporas: discover Dizzip, Expats Paris and Expat.com .
Towards the generalization of the diasporic experience in the digital age
Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin is a geographer and urban planner. In this issue of Revue Urbanisme, she broadens the notion of “connected migrant” living “here and elsewhere” to all city dwellers and speaks of metropolization: “The metropolis is proving to be complex due to the generalization of the experience. diasporic which is no longer limited to migrants alone. At least, this is the hypothesis of this text which proposes to clarify the idea of an almost daily inhabitant of “here and elsewhere”. This phenomenon accompanies the digital revolution whose tools allow any individual to regularly maintain contact with other individuals located elsewhere, in other metropolises, in the countryside or quite simply in the bled. “
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