Diaspora humanitarianism: centring relational care practices in crisis response

This paper investigates diasporas’ mobilization in response to humanitarian crises, in comparison to the ‘traditional’ humanitarian sector. We develop a conceptual framework through which we analyze eight Australia-based diasporas’ responses to humanitarian crises. We find that diaspora humanitarian interventions are premised on transnational reciprocal relationships and care practices that bind people together. Diaspora crisis responses significantly diverge from traditional humanitarianism which often focus on the provision of goods without scope for reciprocal engagement. We argue that the universalist ethical principles that guide the traditional international humanitarian system (i.e., humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence) are not well-suited to understand diaspora responses to crises. We propose that the ontologies of feminist ethics of care and of relational humanitarianism are best to recognize diaspora humanitarianism, as they allow for an integrated analysis of diverse diaspora transnational relational care practices, the spheres in which these occur and their underlying motivations.