Last week, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of the project “Diaspora Invest”, presented the Diaspora Mapping Methodology as a tool to support local self-government units in the process of enumeration and adequate use and management of data related to emigration. The tool will help facilitate the collection of information and provide access to creating a clearer picture of the diaspora’s link with the home local communities.
Rough estimates
”When we talk about the diaspora of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), we always use a general estimate of 2 million people who have their origins in our country and live abroad. According to data from Forbes and the United Nations (UN), 34% of the population born in BiH lives outside the borders of our country. At the same time, these are mostly broad and rough estimates. In the absence of a population census, but also the absence of adequate mechanisms for monitoring the status and condition of the BiH population outside the homeland, municipalities and cities throughout the country have expressed their desire to conduct precise research on this issue at the local level,” said Armin Alijagic from Business Center of BiH diaspora.
Until now, local self-government units have received the closest data during election cycles, when part of the diaspora registers to vote by mail. But by all estimates, those numbers don’t even include 5% of the actual population out there.
Important information
”In the last elections, about 63,000 (female and male) people from BiH outside the country, were registered to vote by mail. At the same time, it should be emphasized that there is a significant number of them who come to the country to vote directly on election day or during that period, which immediately creates a change in that data. In addition, the maximum that our country can get through this data is the location of registered citizens abroad, but this data cannot be shared further, and thus it is not filled further,” notes Alijagic.
Business Center of BiH diaspora
USAID recently supported the call for the establishment of the BiH diaspora Business Council, and with the local mapping of the diaspora, conditions will be created for permanent and sustainable cooperation with emigration.
”The diaspora mapping process is divided into nine steps, starting with the creation of the questionnaire, testing, finalization, and ending with the analysis of the collected data and its application in practice. Furthermore, the publication provides a series of recommendations for mapping approaches. The emphasis is on the importance of defining goals, communication with the diaspora, as well as methods of data collection, whether online or offline. Special attention is directed to the importance of data analysis according to different criteria, in order to obtain specific and usable results,” concluded Alijagic, Avaz reports.
