ABSTRACT
Philanthropic donations in Motugam, central Gujarat, are a means to express, maintain and remake attachments with the home region. Struggles over the significance of migrant transfers illustrate the complexities and local embeddedness of these transnational flows. The chapter argues that different types of migrant resource transfers are categorized as ‘diaspora philanthropy’ under this label without sufficient attention to local specificities. The authors argue for further contextualization of diaspora philanthropy as embedded in the social and cultural historical formation of migrants’ region of origin, the circumstances of migration and settlement abroad, and the nature of transnational ties and relationships maintained.
