Abstract:
The term "diaspora" has been shifted into more positive definition being related to its potentials for development. Engagement of diaspora by home countries, consequently, has been an increasingly common foreign policy in contemporary world. In 2012, Indonesia, an emerging leader of ASEAN, has just started to engage its diaspora as a foreign policy instrument to accumulate contributions for development purposes. This paper seeks to see this phenomenon implemented in Indonesia by studying not only the factors and goals that lead Indonesia to design the policies but also the strategies Indonesia implements in the diaspora engagement. This qualitative analysis is supported by relevant data from published research paper and interviews limited only with non-political practitioners to see the experience of actual diaspora engagement. Focusing to the implementations done post the first Congress of Indonesian Diaspora in 2012, as the first tangible effort to engage the diaspora, this paper elaborates what has been done by Indonesia and its diaspora in the engagement process which is expected to create a fine synergy between and among them. The initiatives done by Indonesia and its diaspora in 2012 and 2013 have indicated the mechanisms of the diaspora engagement which are political, economic, and cultural.
