Competing Origin-country Perspectives on Emigrant Descendants: Moroccan Diaspora Institutions’ Policy Views and Practices Regarding the “Next Generation Abroad”

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on diaspora policies by offering a deeper understanding of origin-state perspectives on emigrants’ descendants. It addresses how diaspora policies targeting this group are rationalized by the state of origin; that is, how policy practices, expectations, and modes of thought related to this “next generation” of the emigrant population are interlinked conceptually. An in-depth inquiry of two Moroccan diaspora institutions reveals the different governing rationalities underlying the cultural diaspora policies in place. The rationalities disagree on the fundamental question of whose interests diaspora policies should serve primarily: the homeland’s or the diaspora’s. As such, the analysis not only draws attention to the way in which the emergence of post-migrant generations alters the governmentality of the diaspora but also points at implications of intrastate institutional plurality.