7 UK Pakistani diaspora
97. There are around 1.07 million people
in the Pakistani ethnic group living in the UK. The last figures
available on the amount of money being sent back to Pakistan specifically
from the UK are from 2010 at £627million[127]—this
represented 10% of the total amount of money flowing back into
Pakistan from its worldwide diaspora that year.
98. During the inquiry the Committee
visited Derby to meet members of the diaspora. We heard about
the community's involvement with charity in Pakistan, including
raising funds for schools and flood victims. We were also informed
of the diaspora's distrust of the Government of Pakistan and public
officials due to the corruption and bribery they experience on
their visits there. They have therefore tended to finance small
individual projects that they worked on in a personal capacity
making sure the money they gave was managed by friends or family
or even by themselves on visits. The diaspora were very keen to
work with DFID to ensure funds were spent wisely through their
connections or by volunteering their own time to DFID.
99. According to Anwar Akhtar about
4,000-5,000 British Pakistanis fly out to Pakistan every summer.[128]
He said there was a professional class who now wanted to engage
with DFID. He wanted to see:
a small sum of money in the scheme
of things, four, five or six million, over a two to three year
period, for specific peer to peer engagement between the institutions
Pakistan needs to grow, and diaspora organisations who can also
talk some blunt truths to power.[129]
He added:
the potential leverage is huge,
and it is game changing, for multiple reasons—cultural,
political, strength of voice, level of access, level of engagement,
the authority the diaspora has.[130]
He said he found it 'stunning' that
DFID did not have an information stall at Manchester airport,
saying, "These are our projects; go and have a look whilst
you are in Pakistan," to raise awareness.
The British Pakistani community
wants to engage. [...] People trust Human Rights Commission Pakistan;
they will send their money. People trust the Edhi Foundation;
they will send their money. People trust The Citizens Foundation;
people trust Islamic Relief. People are engaging. Bluntly, those
organisations are not enough to stabilise Pakistan. What I am
trying to say is that you need to work with that channel of activity,
and engage DFID.[131]
100. We were interested in how the diaspora
could be involved. Michael Green suggested a comparison with the
USA and Mexican diaspora:
The kind of work that has happened
in Mexico with the hometown development associations can be a
way of saying to the diaspora, "Actually, you get more bang
for your buck if you work through these structures to help and
get some collective action." [132]
He saw a lot of potential for DFID to
use remittances[133]
as a pool of development financing and a way of engaging the diaspora
in Pakistan's development.[134]
He also suggested the use of match funding by DFID.[135]
101. The Secretary of State told us:
I have the Department working on
a piece of work to look at some of these key diaspora groups and
how we can engage and work with them in a more, as you say, structured
way. Britain is now a very diverse country, and we need to use
that diversity and turn it to our advantage.[136]
102. We recommend that DFID explore
innovative ways of working with the UK Pakistani diaspora:
to improve the effectiveness
of the development assistance programme, in particular by involving
the diaspora in monitoring projects; and
to align, where appropriate,
diaspora funding and remittance flows to Pakistan with DFID supported
programmes.
127 State Bank of Pakistan data Back
128
Q81 Back
129
Q81 Back
130
Q81 Back
131
Q82 Back
132
Q44 Back
133
A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to his
or her home country. Back
134
Q44 Back
135
Q44 Back
136
Q146 Back
|
