ABSTRACT
Jamaica was one of the early adopters of the Diaspora option, a term that policy makers at the World Bank have used to describe a broad set of policy initiatives aimed at utilizing the economic, human and social capital of populations abroad to revitalize growth and development. The shift from migrant to diaspora obscures the way that gender structures diasporic formations and influences the durability of diasporic flows. Drawing on a case study of Jamaica and the deliberations that have emerged from a specific component of its diaspora option, this chapter examines how the gendered contributions of women within migration circuits are considered by states as they seek to incorporate populations abroad into their development strategies. Through the maintenance of remittance-led transnational networks, migrants played an instrumental role in the economic and social welfare of families and communities, particularly during the early years of neoliberalization, when many governments in the global South retreated from the provision of welfare.
