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Emigration and Political Change in the Sending Country

04 October 2017, 12:30 pm–2:00 pm

Dragos Radu

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

Centre for Comparative Studies of Emerging Economies

Location

Room 433 UCL SSEES 16 Taviton Street London WC1H 0BW

Dr Dragos Radu (King’s Business School, KCL) will present on "Emigration and Political Change in the Sending Country" at this lunchtime seminar organised by the UCL SSEES Centre for Comparative Studies of Emerging Economies.

Over the last three decades, emigration and democratization have been twin phenomena in many transition and developing economies. But there is still surprisingly little evidence on whether and in which way large-scale emigration feeds back on political change and democratic consolidation in countries of origin. Do large emigration flows generate pressure to improve governance "back home"? What are the main mechanisms through which emigration impacts upon the political and institutional development of sending countries? Answering such questions is crucial for understanding the long-term effects of emigration upon living conditions in transition and developing countries.

The seminar will address these questions for the case of a transition country which is representative in terms of increases in both emigration rates and democracy scores over the same period. Since 1989, Romania switched from autarky with virtually no emigration to becoming a major sending country of migrants to European and overseas destinations. It also experienced a simultaneous, albeit slower, transition from totalitarianism to democracy and from socialism to capitalism and a market economy.

We use two characteristics of the Romanian institutional landscape and political system: the large variation in clientelistic arrangements and machine politics across municipalities on the one side and the two contrasting legacies of Romania's historical regions on the other. This set-up enables us to evaluate the impact of emigration upon the electoral choices of non-migrants who remain in the sending regions. It also allows us to provide an explanation for the mechanism linking emigration to political change in the sending areas.

All welcome to attend, no registration required.

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