ABSTRACT
Only a limited number of IR studies have studied diasporas and the organizations they form. Migration research and organizational sociology also appear to run their own courses, largely uninformed by each other. In this chapter, the author assesses the state-of-the-art on diaspora organizations (DOs) in migration research, IR, and organizational sociology, showing that they offer complementary theoretical frameworks for addressing DOs. Next, she applies five theories 1) liberalism (IR), 2) constructivism (IR), 3) contingency theory (OS), 4) neo-institutionalism (OS), and 5) associational theory (OS) in the analysis of two DOs in Germany—the Union of Kurdish Associations in Germany (Verband der Vereine aus Kurdistan in Deutschland: KOMKAR) and the German-Syrian Association for the Promotion of Freedom and Human Rights (Deutsch-Syrischer Verein zur Förderung der Freiheiten und Menschenrechte: DSV). Without integrating them into one framework, the author discusses what these theories progressively reveal about DOs and, in return, how they can profit from the study of DOs. The argument is that together these theories provide a fuller understanding of DOs that goes beyond explanations based on political opportunity structures (POS), which is the predominant approach to the study of DOs in migration studies at present.
