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Diaspora Humanitarians: How Diaspora Communities Respond to Humanitarian Crises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

René Rejón Open the ORCID record for René Rejón [Opens in a new window] ,
Bina Fernandez Open the ORCID record for Bina Fernandez [Opens in a new window] ,
Louise Olliff Open the ORCID record for Louise Olliff [Opens in a new window]  and
Delvin Varghese Open the ORCID record for Delvin Varghese [Opens in a new window]
René Rejón*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Bina Fernandez*
Affiliation:
School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Louise Olliff*
Affiliation:
Refugee Council of Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Delvin Varghese*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Centred Computing, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
*
rene.rejon@unimelb.edu.au
bina.fernandez@unimelb.edu.au
louise.olliff@protonmail.com
Delvin.Varghese@monash.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During humanitarian crises, diasporas often contribute vital support to the survival and reconstruction of their communities of origin. This ‘diaspora humanitarianism’ reshapes the international humanitarian system, but its scope, modality and impact remain understudied, partly due to the ‘invisible’ nature of diaspora interventions. This paper expands the understanding on the how and why diasporas engage in humanitarian responses, by examining survey data on the responses of six Australia-based diasporas to a range of crises (i.e. sociopolitical crises, military conflicts and disasters). Our findings demonstrate that diasporas’ contributions focus on the household level, present gender-differentiated patterns and vary according to the nature of the crises. While our data reveal a ‘coordination gap’ between diaspora communities and the humanitarian sector, these communities are keen to cooperate with other actors. These results unveil not only the strengths and challenges of diaspora humanitarianism, but potential avenues to integrate it to the humanitarian system.

Keywords

DiasporasHumanitarianismHumanitarian crisesHumanitarian systemAustralia

Information

Type
Research Paper
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 2025 , pp. 191 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2024

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Footnotes

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-024-00707-x.

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