Although they often respond to the need to leave in search of better economic opportunities, in a globalized (and despite supposedly deglobalized) world diaspora contributes to the geopolitical power of the country of origin, in addition to representing significant revenue through remittances (close to 800,000 million dollars by 2022, with India, Mexico, and China leading). They have become an important part and, for this reason, the regimes of some countries are trying to control them more and more. They also try, at the same time, to train and limit the brain drain that occurs in the most technologically developed countries, where there is a shortage of talent in sufficient quantity and quality, which also requires those who come from it.

The paradigmatic case is China. HE count that there are about 50 or 60 million people of Chinese nationality (10.7 million) or origin (including Taiwanese) overseas, whose origins go back to the ancient Silk Road. Currently, the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia are destinations with large Chinese community presence. Sometimes not without problems. For example, in Malaysia, where (as in other countries in the region) ethnic Chinese control a large part of the economy and have ways and customs that are different from the majority of Muslims. In 1969 there were still anti-Chinese riots in Malaysia, with notable outbreaks later. In Spain, in 2020 there were around 215,000 people of Chinese nationality registered in the census.

The Chinese regime has understood the importance of this diaspora and is trying to control it more and more. A few weeks ago two people were arrested on charges of helping to set up a post POLICE secrets in New York on behalf of the Chinese government. Three dozen officers of China’s national police have been charged with using social media to harass dissidents in the United States. Beijing is also trying to rein in the many Chinese students who travel abroad, especially to the US – now with increasing difficulties – to continue their studies. The Chinese Ambassador in Washington, Xie Feng, has written a letter to Chinese students in the country asking them to support the Chinese Communist Party, and “tell the story of China well”; that is official.

according to some information, tens of thousands of Chinese students pledge allegiance to the regime before traveling abroad. Almost all of them returned – loyal to the regime that had helped them study abroad –, although later with more scared to have the contents of their phones and computers checked by the authorities on their return. It is important that in 2021-22 there are approx 290,000 Chinese international students in the US – the largest number of foreigners – and less than 2,500 American students in China (in 2020, up from nearly 15,000 a decade earlier). Such disproportion results in an imbalance in shared knowledge. Diaspora also contributes to in-depth knowledge of their country and culture.

Nearly all overseas Chinese communicate with their family and friends in China, and with each other, via the WeChat application (similar to but more sophisticated than WhatsApp). After the restrictions imposed on TikTok in the US, it is now being studied to also ban WeChat, something that has not been decided exactly as it does not block them from this sophisticated communication system (and more).

It is true that Westerners also have their diaspora, which is lobby, but they were not very organized past the imperial period, especially the Spanish in Latin America, and the British, especially in India, the former “jewels in the crown”. He Federal Voting Assistance Program it was estimated in 2018 that 4.8 million American civilians live abroad, plus 1.2 million military (with thousands of bases and facilities around the world, and their officials).

The Lebanese are few, but they have a very influential diaspora, especially in Latin America, as Amin Maalouf recounts with his mastery of literature in origin (2004). Jews maintain a dense network of support and influence, although not all agree with the State of Israel, especially the current one. Jews can be considered a very different case. They are diaspora who come from other countries, not from the State of Israel. There are also international religious networks, but they are not proper diaspora.

In Spain there is 872,000 Moroccans or Spaniards of Moroccan origin, the largest foreign group (followed by Romanians, the world’s fifth diaspora). Moroccan authorities exercise significant control over them, directly or through the imams they send, and their extraordinary secret services. According to CNI records whose contents have been filteredThe General Directorate of Studies and Documentation (DGED), Morocco’s secret foreign service, tried to mobilize them in May 2021 against the Spanish government’s decision to “host” Brahim Ghali, the Polisario leader, who was ill.

There have always been Indians outside of India, in most of Asia, and in Africa, which constituted important trade and economic networks. It must be remembered that Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu, maker of free India, worked for several years, between the 19th and 20th centuries, as a lawyer in South Africa, defending the rights of the tens of thousands of Indians or people of Indian origin who inhabited there. The Indian diaspora contributed to the national movement, to India’s independence and is now contributing to the transformation of the country’s civilization into a global power.

The states of India are different between overseas Indians, legally Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), and People of Indian Origins (PIOs), living in or originating from outside India. According to a report by the Ministry of External Affairs, there are 32 million NRIs and PIOs outside India. Overseas Indians make up the largest diaspora in the world, settling first in the US, then in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Every year 2.5 million Indians emigrate abroad, the largest number in the world. Diaspora contributed about 80,000 million dollars directly and more indirectly to the Indian economy, 43% of the country’s trade deficit in 2018. India is behind Diaspora Initiative Organization (ODI), headquartered in New Delhi, with antennas and offices in various countries. ODI tries to understand different diaspora by comparing and contrasting their experiences, and encourages ideas such as the role of diaspora in the rise of ‘global India’. It is not only the world’s most populous country since this year, according to the United Nations, but also important Silicon Valley managers are from India, such as Sundar Pichai, of Alphabet, Satya Nadella, of Microsoft, Arvind Krishnade of IBM or Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology. Do not miss the current British Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

Other examples of the diaspora can be cited such as Turks, who number between three and seven million in Germany, many have the right to vote, or in their countries of origin, as seen in Turkey’s recent elections.

Several years ago, Yale University professor, Amy Chua, in her book the world is on fire (2002), consider that as the importance of diaspora grows with globalization, the hatred and resentment they generate among the host population also increases, as is the case of the Chinese in Southeast Asia mentioned above, or various cases in the West, and especially in Europe. , including the United Kingdom from Brexit, where resistance grew not only to European immigration, but also to immigration from the former British Empire, which had until now been an exception. However, the diaspora is becoming a new force factor of global reach, also of growing competition, and one that could characterize the world order in the second half of this century between China and India.