The associate professor of strategic communications discussed the public diplomacy efforts that the governments of El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia have established (or not) with their migrants in the United States.
Vanessa Bravo, associate professor of strategic communications, served as the keynote speaker at the Diaspora Studies series, presenting her research on Oct. 10 that examines state-diaspora relations in the cases of the governments of El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia. Additionally, she compared those relationships with the one that Mexico has established with its migrants around the world, and in particular with those in the United States, since the 1970s.
The virtual panel, attended through an online platform by researchers from different countries in Latin America, is part of a series of scholarly presentations about the relationships that diaspora communities form and maintain with their governments at home, particularly in Latin America.
Bravo was approached by the organizers of the Diaspora Studies series because of her research expertise. “We have seen, with lots of interest, your publications about state-diaspora relations and we would love to know more about your research, particularly in Latin America,” wrote Yetzi Rosales Martinez, full professor at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, in Monterrey, Mexico, in her invitation to Bravo.
In her virtual presentation, which was attended by 14 researchers, Bravo discussed the public diplomacy efforts that the governments of El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia have established (or not) with their migrants in the United States. These efforts include providing external voting rights, offering dual citizenship and making available incentives to invest in productive projects at home to conceptualizing the diaspora in specific ways in governmental speeches, and defending the migrants´ human rights while in transit and during their time at their host country.
After Bravo’s 45-minute presentation, Andrea P. Gonzalez, professor in the School of Latin American Studies at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México) served as the session’s discussant and offered observations about Bravo´s research. In total, Bravo’s session lasted one hour and 45 minutes and included a lively 15-minute Q&A segment.
The Diaspora Studies series, known formally as the Permanent Seminar on Diaspora Studies, is organized by the Departments of Cultural Studies and Population Studies at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Monterrey) and by the Department of International Studies at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico D.F.).