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：跨境和跨境关系类型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们流动的障碍，但也为各种经济活动创造了机会。人们可以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，国际边界的运作方式并不完全相同。有些边界，如欧洲联盟内部的边界，促进了跨境流动。其他国家，如美国-墨西哥边境，加强师。埃默里大学博士生丹尼尔K.汤普森，由彼得·D博士监督。在一个全球移民和金融循环与当地跨境流动相互交织的区域经济中，这种可变性的影响问题将很少得到解决。 该项目将深入访谈与商业统计相结合，其结果将使社会科学家和决策者了解跨国投资对贫困和跨国互联地区的影响。 通过与吉吉加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。研究将在吉吉加进行，吉吉加是埃塞俄比亚东部靠近埃塞俄比亚-索马里边境的一个重要贸易城镇，历史上曾是埃塞俄比亚高地和索马里海岸之间贸易的中转站。在过去十年中，Jigjiga已成为一种新型国际商业的场所，因为数百名散居国外的索马里人，特别是来自欧洲和北美的索马里人，已经返回并在该镇创办了企业。研究人员将比较商业战略，竞争和三组商人之间的机会：（1）以城镇为基础的零售商;（2）商人谁专门从事与索马里的跨境贸易，并有长期的跨境关系;（3）返回侨民投资者，其关系远远超出了该地区。数据将通过参与者观察、线人绘图任务、对来自三个群体的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，以绘制出他们的本地、区域和跨国金融和社交网络。这些数据将使三个群体之间的比较，以确定他们如何影响区域经济和经济机会，以及如何广泛的贸易和金融回路是在边境城市的基础。

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.