Decentralization and diaspora capture: transnationalism, autocracy, and hybrid power in federal Ethiopia.

This article analyzes how transnational actors navigate the tensions between federal policy, more localized power structures, and informal forms of authority in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State (SRS). The concept of ‘diaspora capture’ foregrounds the efforts of state officials and transnational elites to take control of processes through which diaspora identities and patterns of coordination are formed and negotiated within webs of kinship and economic relations. Somali social structure has often been described as essentially ‘stateless’ or democratic to the point of anarchy, and Somali transnationalism is marked by webs of kinship-based reciprocity and informal economic practice. Nevertheless, we show that in eastern Ethiopia, post-conflict diaspora engagement since 2010 is characterized by persistent efforts of government elites and diaspora actors to gain influence over each other, reshaping the transnational terrain. We argue for more attention in transnational studies to how the conflicts and tensions between national or federal policy environments and subnational authority structures can create new fields of transnational interaction and unexpected collaborations between local governments (including autocratic ones) and diaspora constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]