Beyond political sponsorship

Sustainability in countries of origins apart from political sponsorship.

We zoom further in to look at what Diasporans in their host countries can do to harness the best of whatever there is to its utmost benefit to their home countries.

Home Town associations:

As a diasporan living in Germany, I would like to speak to the most-studied form of Diaspora engagement here which is the “Home Town Association.”

Residents of the same town or village example, such as Türkiye commonly migrate to the same locality in Germany. The Home Town Associations they form, serve the dual purpose of providing social support to them as migrants and economic support to their places of origin.

In Germany, a number of them come together and raise down payments to pay for mortgages, which are rotated until everyone has their own first house, and then they do the same to build at home and or buy more properties using the same method, and or invest in businesses.

The Türkiyes, especially as well as Afghanistan, Indians, and Chinese, would form consortiums to help lessen the burden of making it; this practice, did similar associations with Irish, Poles, Italians, and other immigrant groups that came before, helped them establish, harness, and support themselves to build capacity in every area of their lives.

Today, immigrants from Central American and Caribbean countries are forming similar associations in the United States, for example, while in Canada, we see similar happenings among Indians.

Ghanaian and Nigerian immigrants to the UK have also done similar years past but have shifted to sponsorship of political parties as they appoint, jobs, and contracts, among others.

The political sponsorship has moved people largely from collective benefits to individualistic mindsets. This has become detrimental to the general community as greed and self-centeredness have taken over and destroyed the Home Town Associations and community spirit.

People are unable to see beyond themselves. While this is detrimental to the people, it is, to a large extent a great benefit to political parties who sow more discourse, divide, and rule to gain more.

Home Town Associations, if set up with a common goal in mind to harness and impact for a collective gain, although they vary considerably in the kinds of support that could be sent home, charitable contributions, infrastructure improvements, funding for human development projects such as health, education, and recreational projects, and capital investment in income-generating activities can go a long way to impact these communities in the foreign countries and their society of origin to a larger benefit than political sponsorship. Clubs could be set up to operate in the countries of residents, and parallel clubs in home countries can work in collaboration to ensure success.

These clubs and associations, if formed devoid of self-centeredness, can pool their efforts and experience and have leveraged cooperation from the state and federal levels as well.

The diaspora has invested huge amounts into political sponsorship over the past few years. All of these have been non-beneficial to the masses and do not impact the donors collectively.

Politicians are unable to deliver on promises. So instead of investing in them, it was time consideration to mobilise to impact society one small corner at a time.