Scottish Homecoming

Dorte's post yesterday on DJ's Krimiblog, which included a photo of a pack of shortbread with 'Homecoming Scotland' logo printed on it, reminded me that late last year myself and a couple of colleagues (Mark Boyle and Delphine Ancien) spent a couple of days in Scotland interviewing people involved in managing Scotland's diaspora as part of a project for the Scottish Government - this included those in charge of the Homecoming Scotland project. It also reminded me that there was a Scottish Diaspora Forum held at the Scottish Parliament on July 25th (I've found some coverage in the Scotsman yesterday and some of our work discussed in the comment by Eddie Tait).

I've no idea how Homecoming Scotland has been going - it seemed to me at the time of the interviews that it was being transformed from a project concerned with engaging the diaspora to a tourist one aimed at getting bodies in beds. The outcome of our project was a report - The Scottish Diaspora and Diaspora Strategy: Insights and Lessons from Ireland - for the Scottish Government that compared the Irish approach to its diaspora with the Scottish approach and suggested potential ways forward for Scotland to productively engage with its diaspora.

Our principle arguments were that any diaspora strategy has to focus on both culture and economy; be as inclusive as possible; be productive for both the diaspora and Scotland; and should be light and flexible and not overly managerialist or overly determined. My suspicion is that given the differences in the nature and modes of governance between Ireland and Scotland, that the Scottish approach will largely continue to replicate its current strategy whilst trying to widen the net. We'll have to wait and see how things develop.

Over the past six months we've organised an international workshop on diaspora strategies that brought together policy makers from 8 countries and the World Bank and written three other reports on diaspora strategies including one for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. I'll write about those reports at some other point.