MPI Study: Connected through Service - Diaspora Volunteers and Global Development

There have been steady increases in volunteering organizations that offer opportunities to diaspora community members to return to their home countries to perform short or long-term public service, bringing specialized and local knowledge to the tasks of economic and social development. 

This report, undertaken by the Migration Policy Institute through a USAID grant, examines how nearly 200,000 first- and second-generation immigrants are among the 1 million US residents who spend time volunteering abroad each year. Diasporas often have the connections, knowledge and personal drive to volunteer outside the framework of organized volunteer programs. But many also volunteer through established programs. As skilled migration and the number of U.S. youth with ancestors in the developing world grow over the coming years, the potential for both skilled diaspora volunteers and youth diaspora volunteers will increase, as this report discusses.