Development at Home: A case study of development cooperation between the Swedish government and the Somali diaspora in Sweden

Sammanfattning: This paper departs from an interest which has grown exponentially since the beginning of the 2000s’ for cooperation between donor governments and diasporas in development initiatives directed at the diasporas’ country of origin. It notices a discrepancy between identified potential and observed practical results. In an attempt to understand this discrepancy, the thesis seeks to explore the seldom explicitly studied dynamics of interests between donor governments and conflict-generated diasporas in development cooperation. Thereby the study seeks to contribute to an understanding of the conditions underpinning diaspora engagement in development work. To achieve this end, a case study on the development cooperation between Swedish development agencies and the Somali diaspora in Sweden is conducted. Interviews are carried out with members of the Somali diaspora and Swedish development agencies, all of whom have experience of joint development initiatives. It is argued that the dynamics of interest are influenced by the diasporas special relationship with both the home and host country, and that the dynamics are present in the political, economic, cultural and social sphere. Finally, a set of theoretical concepts that are central to understanding the dynamics of interests in this form of development cooperation are developed.