Description
This paper explores the neglected role of emotions in the study of diaspora diplomacy (Ho & McConnell, 2017), bringing together strands of literature in public diplomacy (Dolea, 2022, 2023), migration and diaspora studies (Boccagni & Baldassar, 2015), as well as international relations with a focus on emotions (Bleiker & Hutchison, 2014; Koschut et al., 2017). Drawing on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with representatives of Romanian diaspora organizations in the UK (September – November 2023), it seeks to answer how they define their identity and role in the community, as well as the constant negotiation of emotional ties with home and host state. Findings show a range of individual emotions play a key enabling role in their decision to establish and lead a diaspora organization. At the same time, these emotions become collective and political as the shared loss and trauma of emigration (Volkan, 2017) is invoked as triggering their responsibility towards the community. It is thus possible to establish a typology of roles: cultural mediators, partners of home diplomatic authorities, facilitators of contacts with host state authorities, activists giving a voice to the unheard, the marginalized and the neglected and even political representatives of the community.
