Lobbyists Abroad? : Diaspora Influence on the Relations Between the Home and the Host Country

Abstract

The study of migrants' role in international relations has brought forward a diverse range of studies that reach from single case studies over theoretical works and limited comparative studies to cross-sectional time series analyses. The dominant approach in the literature is to conceptualize diaspora communities as interest groups that lobby their host country government on foreign policy issues that concern the homeland. Beyond anecdotal and case study evidence, however, empirical support for this notion is rather scarce. Using different types of cross-sectional time series data, this thesis contributes to the literature by testing the diaspora effect across three foreign policy outcomes. The findings of the thesis suggest that on aggregate, migrants' influence on the bilateral relations between their host and their home country is primarily driven by their function as a linkage between countries. As migrant ties enhance the familiarity between countries and increase the level of attention to home country events in the host country, they can have both positive and negative effects for the homeland government. The first study finds that host countries send more emergency assistance to the home countries of their immigrants after natural disasters. Other than suggested by the lobbying approach, autocratic donors are found to be slightly more responsive to their immigrant communities, and the effect is stronger for more distant and less severe disasters. The second study presents evidence suggesting that migrant groups enhance the probability that the host country targets the home country with a sanction. While autocratic and human rights-violating countries are more likely to be sanctioned by their diaspora's host countries, emigrants from democratic and human rights-respecting countries do not decrease the probability of sanction onset. While the lobbying approach cannot explain why the aggregate diaspora effect can be positive and negative at the same time, the analysis of U.S. aid allocation patterns in the third study shows that certain features of migrant groups as interest groups are correlated with the amount of aid the homeland receives. The lobbying effects, however, appear to be mostly conditioned by the home country's need for assistance. Moreover, migrant groups and their features are found to have an informative effect regarding the home country's need for assistance. Together, the three studies of this thesis offer a more nuanced view of migrants' role in international relations, countering concerns of disproportionate migrant influence in foreign policy making.