The Transnational Engagement of the Somali Diaspora: for Whose Benefit? Involvement Between Clans Politics and State-building

The Somali federal government established in 2012 presents still limited capacity to provide for the needs of the population, particularly in terms of livelihood support and security. This creates space for state contestation and for other actors, including Somali clans and Islamist groups, to address people’s needs in its place. Current Somali politics thus reverts around multiple sources of governance, which the Somali diaspora inevitably uses to channel support to relatives and trusted networks in Somalia. The diaspora plays a vital role in ensuring income and investments, and participates in statebuilding initiatives as well as peace and conflict dynamics embroiling the homeland. By doing so, the diaspora is caught in a double and opposite process, as its engagement can at once undermine state-building processes while foster development and security, the latter being key to favour long-term reconciliation and stability. This article seeks to examine patterns of Somali transnational engagement in order to assess its modalities of interaction and its relationship with societal dynamics and the ongoing federal statebuilding project.