Amid instability caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, a humanitarian crisis erupted in Armenia as conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified and Turkey imposed a blockade. Armenian labor migrants to Russia are mostly male and concentrated in the service and construction sectors. However, the sporadic and isolated nature of diaspora-led efforts, and the top-level cultural focus of current government initiatives appear to be insufficient in pulling Armenia out of its lower-middle-income transition economy category.For Armenia, a picture emerges of divergent currents within the diaspora, often seen from above as a unified entity centered only on cultural survival. The United States and Canada (estimates range from 550,000 to 1.5 million collectively) and Europe (with France home to approximately 400,000 to 750,000 ethnic Armenians) are the next largest clusters, with smaller groups dispersed across the former Soviet Union, Iran, Australia, and Latin America.The diaspora’s engagement with Armenia to date offers a disparate and contradictory picture. The center of the Armenian Canadian community is the Greater Montreal Area. It eventually confronted the Roman Republic in a war, which it lost in 66 BC, but nonetheless preserved its sovereignty. According to the map there are 50-100,000 Armenians currently living in Turkey, basically the descendants of the survivors of the Armenian genocide who remained in Turkey. Diaspora individuals were instrumental in attracting FDI in this period, particularly in connecting major multinational corporations such as Marriott, HSBC, and Microsoft to Armenia. Between 1995 and 2003, remittances fluctuated between 4 percent and 6 percent of Armenia’s gross domestic product (GDP). Newly formed groups in the old diaspora, solely focused on engagement with Armenia, have actively contributed to the country’s social and economic development. Safran, William. Many diaspora members welcomed Armenia’s independence and subsequently led wide-scale development efforts as the tiny postsocialist nation’s living standards collapsed and security concerns resurfaced.
Diaspora Investment, Crisis Economies and Urban Transformation. 2009. With the growing ease of travel and expanding communication, younger generations of the new Eastern and Western diasporas have actively immersed in Armenian culture, taking on volunteer assignments or boosting tourism through regular vacations to Armenia. 2010.
2010. Yet over time, the engagement has expanded. By 1999, privatization receipts accounted for more than half of FDI inflows, largely fueled by diaspora Armenians or firms in which they played an executive role. As of 2009, 90 percent of companies with foreign investment were identified as diaspora-connected in a study published by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).Since 2000, the relationship between the old diaspora and Armenia has transformed from investments in Armenian companies and development projects from afar to increased interpersonal partnerships in the country. Moreover, the old diaspora in the post-Soviet countries has been effective in providing employment for Armenia’s temporary labor migrants.A devastating earthquake in 1988 and Armenia’s 1991 independence marked a turning point in diaspora engagement. A significant minority of female labor migrants also found their way to the United States working mainly in domestic or child-care fields. Heleniak, Tim. Encyclopedia Iranica. In recent years, the promise of diaspora has gained prominence globally as a policy tool for social and economic development. Much of this migration consisted of individuals who self-identified with the region known as Western Armenia—much of which was ceded to Turkey in the 1920s—solidifying what has become known as the Western Armenian diaspora.The third wave—from World War II to independence in 1991—saw movements on a lesser scale. The “adopt-a-family” project matches refugees with Armenian host families to help them integrate into Armenian society. Large in size, this group is likely to be more financially secure with a greater share of representatives engaged in higher skilled professional activities compared to most new diaspora members.A heterogeneous entity, the old diaspora encompasses a plurality of voices and agendas. Gevorkyan, Aleksandr V. and Otaviano Canuto. Armenian Americans are residents or citizens of the United States that have partial or total Armenian ancestry. Among the old Armenian diaspora in Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), however, there was little political organization or community mobilization, perhaps due to members’ more direct links and knowledge of realities in the homeland and lack of self-identification as diaspora.Old diaspora engagement includes a wide range of activities (as discussed in more detail below) including trade, tourism, philanthropy, and political lobbying. In some ways the engagement may be stronger, as connections occur on the individual level and in niche sectors or industries, bypassing large organizational or interest group administrative apparatus.
Following macroeconomic stabilization in the late 1990s, diaspora members began to invest in Armenia’s business projects. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcutsCookies help us deliver our Services.
Diaspora Investments and Firm Export Performance in Selected sub-Saharan African Countries.