Disciplining the diaspora
Elections, political legitimacy and Kosovo’s diaspora vote.
The attempts to construct the diaspora vote as irresponsible ‘per inati’ (‘out of spite’), not only infantilizes the diaspora vote and constructs them as uneducated and politically unsophisticated, but also suggests that migration is morally deficient.
The figure being disciplined is not the celebrated global Kosovar but the ordinary working-class diaspora citizen who insists on exercising political rights
The irony is that Kosovo is not and has never been a purely territorial state or polity. Its social, economic and political life has long been molded and fought for by the diaspora.
Dafina Paca
Dafina Paca is a newly qualified doctor, who recently started work as a resident doctor in paediatric surgery at the University Hospital of Wales and a lecturer at Cardiff University. She completed her PhD at Cardiff University, her MBBCh at Swansea University and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She also holds an MRes and a BA from Queen Mary University of London. Her work examines migration, diaspora, memory and belonging, and the structural inequalities that shape education, healthcare, remembrance, public and political life.
DISCLAIMERThe views of the writer do not necessarily reflect the views of Kosovo 2.0.
This story was originally written in English.