Diaspora in action: an example of the usefulness of communities of migrants abroad (diaspora) was described by Thomas McCarthy at the UN symposium on migration - the International Symposium on Migration and Development - taking place this week in Turin, Italy.

Thomas McCarthy emigrated from Ghana to Europe in 1988. Aided by a programme of the International Organization for Migration, he linked with other Ghanaian émigrés in the region to set up a dynamic interaction with their home country.

The Modena-based GhanaCo-op is importing fruit from Ghana, acquiring and managing farmland, and setting up links between Italian and Ghanaian banks. An upcoming project is to install solar panels in villages without electricity, so the inhabitants “can see the sunlight during the night”, Mr. McCarthy said.

GhanaCo-op is also working on the local front, providing services for migrants and working to build bridges with Italian communities. Consciousness-raising is also taking place at the other end of the migrant flow, as the Co-op seeks to dispel illusions as well as open up economic opportunities in Ghana.

“When I got out of school, my dream was to go to Europe, as it was for all my friends,” says Mr. McCarthy, who found jobs in construction, metal working and as a driver. “We believed that once we came here, all our problems would be solved. But that’s hardly the case.”

The total amount of remittances sent home to developing countries by workers abroad reached $173 billion in 2005, $6 billion more than previously estimated, according to official estimates provided by the UN. If remittances flowing through highly informal channels is taken into account, the total would likely reach around $250 billion to developing countries, and $350 billion worldwide, according to Mr. Dilip Ratha, World Bank senior economist. On a broader scale, he said, the arrival of remittances strengthens national balance of payments and reduces the ratio of debt to exports, and therefore can make developing countries more credit worthy. The dependability of inflows from overseas expatriates was used recently by Brazil, for example, to securitize a large loan from Japan at 10 percentage points less than would have otherwise been possible.

Not only are total remittances rising, but they are doing so more steadily and predictably than private capital flows, or even official development assistance. But questions have arisen as to how private remittances can also advance public purposes, such as national development strategies or efforts to attain the UN Millennium Development Goals. What does all of this mean to our globalizing world?

Are we talking here about the reformation in the developing country in a way that they continue dependency on more developed countries? Is this the ideal of development? Whatever the case, the above example from Ghana provides a balm to our aspirations at Sustainable Development Media, because it shows how the Ghanaian Diaspora understands better the neeeds back home. They connected with banks in order to provide for needed electricity at the village level. Had the World Bank worked on this with the central government, some fossil fuels based power plant would have been suggested with wires running through the country-side. Obviously it would have been good for some companies in a developed country, lots of WB employees doing the sites … increased debt on the African Government… and no advance in its economic or social goals leading to further flow of expatriates. The Ghanaian’s In Italy, rather understood that the answer should be the focused attention via solar pannels - perhaps this will make life in that village more prone to keep some of the youngsters home. Just a thought.