Doctoral Dissertation Research: Diaspora Investment and Cross-Border Trade

该奖项支持的这项研究解决了这样一个问题：越境类型和跨境关系的差异如何影响商业战略和经济机会？民族国家之间的政治边界往往是人员流动的障碍，但它们也为各种经济活动创造了机会空间。人们可能会战略性地利用边界来利用不同的税率、劳动力成本和就业前景等因素。然而，国际边界并不都以相同的方式发挥作用。有些国家，例如欧盟内部的边界，促进了跨境流动。其他问题，如美墨边境，则加剧了分歧。埃默里大学博士生丹尼尔·K·汤普森将在彼得·D·利特尔博士的指导下，探讨这种多样性在全球移民和金融回路与当地跨境流动相交的地区经济中的影响问题。将深入访谈与商业统计相结合，该项目的结果将使社会科学家和政策制定者了解跨国投资对贫穷和跨国互联互通地区的影响。通过与Jigjiga大学的学生和研究人员合作，该项目还将帮助一所新大学建立研究能力。研究将在Jigjiga进行，Jigjiga是埃塞俄比亚东部靠近埃塞俄比亚和索马里边境的一个重要贸易城镇，历史上一直是埃塞俄比亚高地和索马里海岸之间贸易的中转站。在过去的十年里，随着数百名散居海外的索马里人，特别是来自欧洲和北美的索马里人返回吉吉加，在镇上创业，吉吉加已经成为一种新型国际商业的场所。研究人员将比较三类商人的商业战略、竞争和机会：(1)城镇零售商；(2)专门从事与索马里跨境贸易的商人，并与索马里建立长期的跨境关系；(3)回国的散居海外的投资者，他们的联系远远超出该地区。将通过参与者观察、线人测绘任务、对这三个群体的90名企业主和经理的深入访谈以及社会和商业网络调查来收集数据，以规划他们当地、地区和跨国的金融和社会网络。这些数据将让这三个群体进行比较，以确定它们如何影响地区经济和经济机会，以及贸易和金融的广泛线路在这个边境城市的根基有多广。

This research supported by this award addresses the question: How do differences in types of border-crossings and cross-border relationships affect business strategies and economic opportunities? Political borders between nation-states are often barriers for the movement of people, but they also create spaces of opportunity for various economic activities. People may strategically utilize borders to take advantage of factors such as different tax rates, labor costs, and employment prospects. However, international borders do not all function in the same way. Some, such as borders within the European Union, promote cross-border flow. Others, such as the U.S.-Mexico border, reinforce divisions. Emory University doctoral student Daniel K. Thompson, supervised by Dr. Peter D. Little, will address the question of the effects of this variaibility in a regional economy where global migration and finance circuits intersect with local cross-border flows. Combining in-depth interviews with business statistics, the results from this project will inform social scientists and policymakers about the impacts of transnational investment in regions characterized by both poverty and transnational interconnectivity. Through collaboration with students and researchers at Jigjiga University, the project will also help build research capacity at a new university.The research will be conducted in Jigjiga, a key trading town in eastern Ethiopia near the Ethiopia-Somalia border that historically has provided a transit point for trade between Ethiopia's highlands and the coast of Somalia. In the past decade, Jigjiga has become a site for a new type of international business as hundreds of ethnic Somalis from the diaspora, especially from Europe and North America, have returned and started businesses in town. The researcher will compare business strategies, competition, and opportunity among three groups of business people: (1) town-based retailers; (2) merchants who specialize in cross-border commerce with Somalia and have longstanding cross-border relationships; and (3) returned diaspora investors, whose ties extend far beyond the region. Data will be collected through participant observation, informant mapping tasks, in-depth interviews with 90 business owners and managers from the three groups, and a social and business network survey to map out their local, regional, and transnational financial and social networks. These data will allow comparisons among the three groups to determine how they impact the regional economy and economic opportunities, and how extensive circuits of trade and finance are grounded in the borderlands city.