MIGRATION

Edited by Elzbieta Gozdziak, Georgetown University

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2011.00689.x

The Diaspora Politics of Colombian Migrants in the UK and Spain

Anastasia Bermudez*

ABSTRACT
Within the broader theme of Latin American migration to Europe, this article looks at the less explored case of Colombian migrants in the United Kingdom and Spain. More specically, it focuses on the transnational political activities of these migrants in connection with the armed conict and search for peace in Colombia, a case of diaspora politics that has not received much attention. It is based on research into the wider transnational political linkages of Colombians in these two countries conducted during 20042007. This research involved nearly 100 semi-structured interviews with Colombian men and women who had migrated for political, security, labour and other reasons, as well as interviews with experts, participant observation and analysis of online community forums and other materials. As such, this study went beyond the dominant focus on economic migration. This approach helped to shed light on an aspect of Colombian migrant transnational politics hardly taken into account before, that is, the individual and collective activities that deal with the violence, human rights situation, and search for peace in Colombia. The rst part of the article offers a summary of the conceptual and methodological issues underpinning this research and a description of the most relevant characteristics of the two migrant communities studied. In the second part, the article analyses the evidence gathered on Colombian migrant transnational activism in relation to the armed conict and search for peace in Colombia and the potential and limitations of this work. The aim of the article is two-fold: to enrich the pool of knowledge on Latin American migration to Europe and to engage with recent literature on the role that diasporas and transnational communities play in relation to conict in their home countries as part of diasporic or transnational civil society.

rdoba, Spain, and Department of * Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA-CSIC), Co Geography, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom. 2011 The Author International Migration 2011 IOM International Migration Vol. 49 (3) 2011 ISSN 0020-7985

Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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BACKGROUND
Conceptually, the research behind this article draws from several elds of study, including investigations of transnational migration and diaspora politics as well as scholarship on armed conict and peace. These areas of study have recently received increased attention as part of the academic and policymaking focus on international migration ows, their potential contribution to development, and the capacity of diasporas to act as peace-makers or peace-seekers in homeland conicts (see Smith and Stares, 2007). In this article, my interest in the armed conict in Colombia and recent migration ows from this country ties these subjects together. The main aim of the article is to contribute a better understanding of Latin American migration to Europe by focusing on how, and to what extent, Colombian transnational communities engage with the conict in the home country. The development of new transnational approaches to the study of international migration has allowed scholars to move away from the previous emphasis on incorporation and acculturation and move towards a recognition that migrants often keep and nourish their linkages to their place of origin (Itzigsohn et al., 1999: 317). On the other hand, diaspora studies have long since dealt with the political links maintained with the homeland, but only in very specic contexts (i.e., governments in exile, nations without a state) or with a particular focus on identity. The transnational approach has broadened this focus to include different aspects of migrant politics (directed towards the home and host countries) and other dimensions of transnational politics.1 As a result, new concepts have emerged, such as that of transnational and diasporic civil society, which help illuminate the political mobilisation of migrants (see McIlwaine, 2007a). This has coincided with growing interest in the role of civil society in conict and peace building and analyses of internal conicts from a transnational perspective (see Salehyan, 2009). Nevertheless, we still know little about the capacity of transnational or diasporic civil society to inuence conict in the home country. As Smith (2007) points out, the research available has tended to approach the subject within a conict resolution analytical framework and from a politics or international relations perspective. Such work analyses whether diasporas help perpetuate or resolve international conicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian struggle or the recent war in the former Yugoslavia, and their role in post-conict reconstruction (see Shain, 2002).2 Very few authors have looked at this subject while incorporating
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a transnational perspective or considering the role of new transnational migrant communities. Exceptions include the work by Al-Ali et al. (2001) comparing the experiences of Bosnian and Eritrean refugees in Europe and Zunzers (2004) wider comparison of four diaspora communities in Europe (from Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Somalia and Afghanistan) and their positive contributions to conict transformation in their respective homelands. According to Zunzer, diaspora communities have a key role to play in such contexts, based on their more neutral position gained by being removed from the conict, the expertise and experience acquired while abroad, and their potential for lobbying the international community and offering support to civil society efforts towards peace at home. However, these new strands of research have ignored the Colombian case and almost any other Latin American conict (for an exception see Smith and Stares, 2007). This is despite the fact that Latin America, and within it Colombia, is currently one of the main sources of migrants to the Global North. According to ofcial data, based on the 2005 census, there are some 3.4 million Colombians living abroad (Conpes, 2009). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data also show that there were more than 400,000 Colombian refugees and asylum seekers as of January 2009.3 These gures are largely the result of more than 50 years of internal armed conict among the armed forces, the left-wing guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia, combined with the violence and corruption caused by the illegal drugs trade and the deteriorating economic and social conditions.4 In addition, the Colombian conict can be described as transnational, using Salehyans (2009) conceptualisation, and thus it is important to understand the role that different transnational actors play in it. The phenomenon of the incipient Colombian diaspora,5 and its politi` -vis the armed conict at home, has received little cal potential vis-a attention. The few studies available have focused mostly on the larger and older communities established in the United States, mainly New York and Los Angeles, and, in some cases, within wider research on Latinos (Guarnizo and D az, 1999; Guarnizo et al., 1999, 2003; Jones-Correa, 1998; Portes et al., 2008). This research suggests that Colombians are not overtly involved in homeland politics despite the generous political rights that Colombian nationals abroad enjoy in relation to the home country (see Serrano Carrasco, 2003). Guarnizos (2006a) work on Colombian migration to the United Kingdom also found that the transnational engagement of migrants tended to be individual and private, rather than collective or public. This is blamed
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mostly on the divisions affecting migrant communities, as well as the mistrust and polarisation caused by the problems of the armed conict and the illegal drugs trade. Still, the research available has highlighted some cases of Colombian migrant participation in broader civic and informal politics in the United States (Jones-Correa, 1998; Portes et al., 2007). Finally, Bouviers chapter in Smith and Stares (2007: 129) is one of the few exceptions in that she specically considers the role of Colombians in the United States in relation to the conict, arguing that there is a general reluctance to engage, albeit with incipient signs of a move towards greater involvement. In this article, I explore the diaspora politics a type of homeland politics generally related to political disputes over sensitive issues such as national sovereignty and security (stergaard-Nielsen, 2003: 763) of Colombian migrants in Spain and the United Kingdom. The aim is not so much to consider the full impact of the Colombian diaspora in perpetuating the conict or contributing to its resolution, but to analyse the political engagement of these two communities in relation to the conict in the homeland. This is based on qualitative research conducted in 20042007 involving almost 100 semi-structured interviews with refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and others (most rst-generation), and non-Colombian experts as well as participant observation and analysis of online community forums and other materials.6 I looked at individual and collective forms of political participation and used a wide denition of transnational politics, from above and below, including formal (electoral, party) and informal (civic) politics.7 Here, I will only be referring to the informal political engagement of Colombians most directly related to the conict (for more on formal politics, such as voting in elections, see Bermudez, 2010).

COLOMBIANS ABROAD AND THE CONFLICT

Colombia has a long history of internal and external migrations, forced and voluntary. However, the phenomenon of substantial Colombian migration abroad is recent. Emigration rates started to climb in the 1960s and rapidly accelerated from the 1990s in response to push and pull factors as well as the establishment of migratory chains. Colombian emigration was traditionally directed to Venezuela and the United States. However, in recent years, countries like Canada and Japan, and others within Western Europe, have become main destinations. Spain and the United Kingdom are home to the rst and second largest
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Colombian communities in Europe respectively, with signicant numbers present also in Italy, France, Germany and Belgium (Guarnizo, 2006b). The British Colombian community Latin Americans are currently one of the fastest growing migrant groups in the United Kingdom, with Colombians constituting the second largest Latin American population in the United Kingdom, but these migration ows are still relatively new and marginal (see McIlwaine, 2007b). England, and London in particular, have always occupied a special place for the Colombian upper classes, attracting political leaders, professionals and students (Guarnizo, 2006a). These linkages were later widened to include all sectors of the Colombian population, especially in the 1970s, when many migrants came under the work permit system. During the 1980s and 1990s, the community grew rapidly in size as migration networks were established, asylum seekers came in signicant numbers, and students and other smaller groups, such as professionals, continued to arrive (Open Channels, 2000). Today, estimates of the size of the community range from 50,000150,000, with most Colombians settling in or around London (Guarnizo, 2006a). According to the studies mentioned above (see also McIlwaine, 2005) the majority of these migrants have an and urban, working or middle-class background, coming from Bogota other large and medium-sized cities. Most have relatively high levels of formal education, but work in low-skilled activities, such as domestic and industrial cleaning, catering or retail. Evidence suggests that there are more women than men in these communities, and most migrants lie in the productive age bracket. This migration is mostly economically driven, with only a small minority being displaced by the armed conict. However, some studies have highlighted the interrelationships between the different types of migration in the Colombian case (McIlwaine, 2005). Colombian migration to Spain In the last two decades, Spain has gone from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. The composition of migration ows has also changed, with a majority of migrants now coming from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Traditionally, Colombian migration to Spain was mostly by refugees, intellectuals and students. However, throughout the 1980s, and especially since the late 1990s, the community has grown exponentially in size. Ofcial data estimate that there were around 355,000 Colombians living in Spain at the beginning of 2009.8 Available research suggests that they are mostly labour migrants,
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although violence and security were also important reasons for migrating (Cruz Zu n iga et al., 2008; IOM UN, 2003). In addition, a signicant number of Colombian students and professionals reside in Spain. Colombian migration to Spain originates from the same regions as the UK ows and is also feminised and concentrated in the economically active age bracket (IOM UN, 2003). Also as in the United Kingdom, migrants have relatively high levels of education, but tend to work in domestic service, catering, construction and retail (ibid.). However, in contrast, the Colombian population in Spain is geographically more extended, with the largest numbers residing in Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia. Furthermore, Colombians in Spain enjoy certain advantages over their co-nationals in the United Kingdom because of historical and cultural links, including easier access to Spanish nationality. Migrants and the current situation of conict My research shows that there are many connections between the two communities studied and the conict at home. Out of the total 69 indepth interviews with Colombian migrants, 34 (26 in Spain and eight in Britain) were with people who had been forced to migrate for reasons directly related to the conict, whether they were recognised refugees or not. Although they formed a heterogeneous group, the majority had been involved in left-wing politics (through a party, trade union, guerrilla group, or student movement), human rights work (as lawyers, academics, activists) or community activities, either personally or through their families. This led to persecution from right-wing paramilitary forces, the security services or unknown actors, nally forcing them into exile. Elena, for instance, was a left-wing militant and social worker working in community development for the town hall in a small municipality near Cali. The local team she worked with started to receive threats and four members were killed. After a failed kidnapping attempt, she left the country for Spain, where she had contacts, and applied for asylum. Refugees such as Elena were generally the most active in transnational collective politics directly related to the conict. Among most other migrants interviewed, references to the violence and insecurity affecting Colombia were common, whether they had migrated for economic or other reasons. Some had family stories relating to the period known as La Violencia,9 to which the origins of the current armed conict can be traced. But personal narratives also stretched into more contemporary events, like in the case of Floralba, a woman from Medell n who had migrated to London with her British husband
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for economic reasons. Although she had not been politically involved in Colombia, Floralba explained how violence had affected her life:
I lived in a neighbourhood where every day lots of people were killed, and they would tell us that it was because of gang wars ... And we got used to it, to run away every time we heard shots, and not to sleep, since many times the bullets would go through the walls.

She later heard that these gangs were linked with paramilitary groups. Although Floralba did not migrate to escape the violence, while in London, she grew more interested in the situation in Colombia and started to participate in political activities organised by a Colombian solidarity group. She had a pessimistic view of the conict and prospects for peace, but still believed that Colombians abroad could do more than people inside the country by mobilising international opinion and solidarity. Other respondents shared this view. A majority were open to discuss the situation of armed conict in Colombia and prospects for peace, reecting a wide array of opinions that mirror the ideological and political divisions in the home country. This suggests that migrants are not as uninterested in homeland politics as previously thought, since, as some authors argue, political discussion can be a predictor of wider political engagement (Garc a Bedolla, 2005). Other ways in which individual members of the diaspora contribute to the conict, or could potentially do so, is through voting in home elections and remittances (see Bouvier, 2007).

ORGANISED TRANSNATIONAL POLITICAL EFFORTS FOR PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

There is a long history of organised involvement by Colombian exiles in diaspora politics going back as far as the Independence era. London, for instance, played a key role as a place where independence leaders came for safety and to look for arms and money. Later, the peace agreements that ended with La Violencia were signed in Spain, where the political elite had been exiled. More recently, the diaspora has also organised and participated in new efforts to support peace or improve the human rights situation in the country. Serrano Carrasco (2003) points out that apart from participating in regular home country elections, Colombians abroad also voted in the 1990 plebiscite on constitutional reform, which was partly called to create the conditions necessary for an end to the conict, and the 1997 consulta por la paz (peace referendum). Other
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work has also mentioned instances of Colombians in different parts of the world organising in favour of peace and human rights in their country, but these efforts have been ascribed to a minority and have not been rez-Brennan, 2003 on Colombians in New explored in detail (see Pe lez et al., 2008 on the Spanish context; Pero, 2007 on York; Gonza Colombians in London). This involvement became particularly signicant in the 1990s, coinciding not only with the deterioration of the conict and security in Colombia and the beginnings of large-scale migration abroad, but also with the emergence of new civil society efforts in favour of peace. Some of the Colombian migrant organisations researched in Spain, like AESCO (America, Espana, Solidaridad y Cooperacion (America, Spain, Solidarity and Cooperation)), emerged in this context:
The idea to create it came about in the summer of 1990, or in 1991 ... but the founders were people like me who arrived here in the 1980s ... Colombians mainly, most of them people who came in search of asylum, as refugees, because of the violation of human rights. They wanted to become involved from here, to support the human rights struggle, and the incipient civil society movement for peace that started to emerge then (AESCO director, Madrid).

Many of their initial projects aimed to attract international attention to the situation in Colombia and support for peace efforts, as well as to nd a way in which exiles could contribute to a negotiated solution to the armed conict. However, events in the home country and in the host society contributed to a change in orientation, with the organisation becoming a main point of reference and support for Latin American migrants in Spain. First, with the failure of the peace negotiations in Colombia, there was a decline in civil society efforts for peace as general pessimism about the end of the conict spread. Second, as Colombian and Latin American migration to Spain grew massively, the focus of attention shifted towards the local conditions and the needs of migrants. However, despite this turn towards immigrant politics, dened by stergaardNielsen (2003: 762) as the political activities that migrants or refugees undertake to better their situation in the receiving country, there was still a commitment towards peace in Colombia. As the director of ACULCO (Asociacion Sociocultural y de Cooperacion al Desarrollo por Colombia e Iberoamerica (Sociocultural and Development Cooperation Association for Colombia and Latin America)), another migrant organisation in Madrid, explained: People have left the country fed up with the violence, and we want them to return to a peaceful country.
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Something similar had happened in London where the origins of some migrant organisations serving the community, such as IRMO (Indoamerican Refugee Migrant Organisation) and Carila Latin American Welfare Group, also can be traced to the ght for human rights in Latin America. These groups were now focused on immigrant politics, even more than in the case of Spain where some of the major organisations had become involved in other transnational activities. Another factor that contributed to the change of orientation in London was that these organisations were older, and the migrants running them had lived in England for longer. As Nelly, a Colombian refugee working for IRMO, explained, as a result of this their priorities had changed. Respondents in London also said that transnational political work was complicated by the divisions, personal conicts and power struggles affecting all, especially left-wing refugees (see below). Both Nelly and Ruth, another Colombian woman who helped found the Latin Front, a new, politically oriented organisation created by Latin American migrants in London (Pero, 2007), expressed the same sentiment in different terms:
One of the reasons why I started to focus on the community here, on the problems we face, is because the impact [of those activities aimed at changing the situation in Colombia] is minimal. (Nelly) The conict [in Colombia] is a domestic problem ... it is not a problem that we, Colombians abroad, can solve. (Ruth)

However, apart from these mainstream organisations, in the two communities studied, there were other groups still focused on diaspora politics. These were the cases, for instance, of the Colectivo Maloka of Barcelona, the Colectivo de Colombianos Refugiados en Espana (Colombian Refugee Collective in Spain (Colrefe)) and the Comite Madrileno por los Derechos Humanos en Colombia (Madrid Committee for Human Rights in Colombia (Comadheco)) in Spain, and the Colombian Refugee Association (Coras), the Colombian Solidarity Campaign (CSC) and Justice for Colombia (JFC) in London. The origin of most of these groups also dates back to the 1990s or early years of the twenty-rst century. Colombian refugees, but also Spanish, British and other people interested in human rights issues, founded most of them.10 Their work was centered on the conict in Colombia as well as improving the situation of migrants and facilitating integration into the host society, with an emphasis on politics here (in the host society) or there(in the home country) varying depending on the organisation
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and over time. Thus, groups like Coras became more involved with the living conditions of refugees and migrants in the host society over time11 while JFC worked almost exclusively on the situation in Colombia. Others, like Comadheco, combined a double approach:12
[This] is an organisation based on solidarity work with Colombia, formed to denounce the violation of human rights in that country, but we have both Colombian and Spanish members. Our work mainly consists of sensibilizar [sensitizing] public opinion in everything related to the internal conict in Colombia. But we also have our own center to offer support to Colombian asylum seekers, those who arrive here and have no other resources or possibilities. (Refugee woman member of Comadheco)

As Sarah, a Colombian woman who originally migrated to Barcelona to study and was workings for Maloka, explained, the diaspora work of these organisations consisted mainly of informing public opinion, including institutions, in the host country and internationally, about what was happening in Colombia through presentations, debates and other events. Often, they brought over leaders of peace initiatives or groups heavily affected by the conict to speak to audiences in Europe and to expand their international networks. Maloka also supported peace projects in Colombia with resources obtained through their work in Spain. As Zunzer (2004) argues, in the case of other diaspora communities involved in conict, the support of diasporic and transnational civil society for homeland-based initiatives can be crucial (see also Keck and Sikkink, 1998, on transnational human rights networks). This view was echoed by Esther, a woman leader of a peace movement in Colombia interviewed in Madrid. She argued that this support helped make the work of organisations in Colombia more visible, and as such promoted their aims and offered international protection to the activists involved. As well as providing material support, diaspora activities also served to create and strengthen transnational and trans-organisational networks. Maloka, for instance, was part of the Taula Catalana (Catalan Table), a network of government institutions, NGOs, academic centers and other institutions created to support human rights and peace in Colombia.13 Another example of this is JFC, a British organisation working in support of human rights and peace in Colombia, which had strong connections with British trade unions and worked closely with London-based Colombians. They were one of the most active organisations of this type in the United Kingdom, especially in lobbying British and EU

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politicians as well as the public. However, in general, diaspora organisations in London seemed to have less institutional support or connections in the host society than those in Spain. Although some Colombian refugees who had migrated to London had done so with institutional support, from human rights organisations like Amnesty International for instance, formal links stopped more or less there. The main exceptions were JFC, the Latin American Workers Association, which was formally linked to British trade unions but did not participate extensively in diaspora politics, and the Latin Front, which had established connections with a British political party but maintained a focus on integration. By contrast, in Spain, several refugees involved in diaspora work talked about the support and connections they had with Spanish political parties, trade unions, NGOs or other institutions. Another organisation researched in London was the CSC, a mixed ColombianBritish group working for similar aims as JFC. Informal networks of Colombians, mostly refugees, also worked on these issues on a less institutionalised basis, for instance, through the convocation of meetings and talks organised on a word of mouth basis or using modern telecommunications through e-mail lists. Two largely cultural organisations were also researched, Nueva Generacion (New Generation) in London, and Casa Amarilla-Imago in Barcelona, both of which worked on issues related to the violence in Colombia and in support of peace. In general, the work done from London in connection with the armed conict in Colombia was either more dominated by British organizations or less institutionalised than that done in Spain. This could be because the size and organization level of the Latin American population in Spain is higher than in the United Kingdom, mainly owing to the fact that the community is much larger in the former. Also, there are higher levels of division and polarisation within the politically committed Colombian community in London.

POTENTIAL AND LIMITATIONS OF DIASPORIC CIVIL SOCIETY

For Aristizabal (2005: 1), a political exile living in Spain, Colombians abroad have a role to play in homeland politics and, more specically, in achieving peace:
This includes the political refugees and exiles, political leaders and activists, social leaders and human rights defenders, all of whom have played a signicant role in the struggles for the transformation of our
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country and represent a very valuable cumulus of experience and knowledge that cannot be wasted ... also the large number of professionals, technicians and qualied workers, whose knowledge and qualications acquired abroad represent a social capital that our country is losing. This diaspora has a political role to play in the Colombian situation. Both because of personal interests, if people aim to return to Colombia with dignity and security, and due to the crisis in the country. This diaspora can and must assume a compromise with peace and reconstruction.

However, two main limitations were identied in this research. First, most respondents thought that the large majority of Colombians abroad were not interested in playing such a role with only a minority getting involved. The latter tended to be refugees with a history of political activism in Colombia. This is not surprising, since for many of these activists, continuing political work was a matter of personal fullment. A majority of the refugees interviewed were politically active, although the level of direct participation depended on personal circumstances. In Spain, some complained that despite their commitment to continue working for Colombia, their legal and economic circumstances made this difcult. In a few instances, their experiences had been so traumatic that almost all ties with Colombia had been broken Other types of migrants, such as students, like Sarah in Barcelona, had also become involved in diaspora politics. However, in general, among those who had migrated for non-political reasons, levels of participation were low. In some cases, migrants were even highly critical of this work. In recent years, public and private interests in Colombia have launched a series of initiatives aimed directly at the diaspora, or involving Colombians abroad whose main aims include reinforcing ties between migrants and Colombia, promoting diaspora philanthropy and improving the image of the country abroad.14 This promotion of nationalist or patriotic feelings among the diaspora led some respondents to criticise the work of those groups that drew attention to the conict in Colombia. For instance, Gabriel, who was involved in I Believe in Colombia, complained that those who were most active in the diaspora tended to be refugees or people who were against the current government, and their views damaged the image of the country:
I nd it sad, by being against the government, sometimes that affects the whole country, they give a negative image of the country ... and I dont agree with this.

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A second problem was the divisions, fear and distrust affecting migrant communities, as highlighted by other studies. These divisions occurred along class, regional or ethnic lines, as with other groups, but were also shaped by the mistrust and fragmentation caused by the armed conict and the drugs trade (Guarnizo and D az, 1999; Guarnizo et al., 1999). This was reected in some respondents comments. Blanca, an economic migrant living in Madrid, said that she did not like going to Colombian events because it was just an excuse for people to get drunk and misbehave. Others mentioned that they only mixed with a small group of close friends and relatives and avoided other Colombians because they did not know what they could be involved in. Levels of mistrust and fear tended to be greater among refugees, given their experiences. As Ruth explained in the case of London:
We are not as close to each other as we used to be, we are more divided now, some people have had problems, and people do not want to mix up with others just in case. Before, when we were less people, we were more united.

Nevertheless, these limitations do not eliminate the potential of the Colombian diaspora for conict transformation. Although only a minority get involved, most respondents agreed that migrants could play a positive role in the home country. For that to happen, however, their basic needs had to be met and they had to become more organised and united. In some cases, they also argued for more support from the Colombian state and the people in Colombia. Also, as Zunzer (2004) argues in his study of diaspora communities in Europe, differences and divisions within communities in conict can become more diluted abroad, allowing for cooperative work. This seemed to be the case within the Colombian communities studied. Interviewees like Cristina in Barcelona and Carmen in London, both of upper or middle class backgrounds, said that living abroad had allowed them to come into contact with Colombians from all classes, something that would have been impossible in Colombia. This, as well as living at a distance from the conict and learning from their experiences in the host country, were all seen as benecial. For some migrants, living in a more democratic and less conictive society based on greater respect for human rights had a great impact on their views about the conict. This was best expressed by Rosa, a Colombian political activist interviewed in Madrid:
Some people, when they leave the country, start taking some distance that allows them to see things in a clearer way ... taking into account more
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elements, and in a calmer manner ... At that stage, you stop dividing the country between the good ones and the bad ones ... With time you can see both countries, the one there and the one here ... you can even start to understand that even if what is here is not perfect, it might be the best for your country right now ... and when you travel there you start comparing, and wondering, why cant Colombia have what Spain has?

CONCLUSIONS
This article has focused on the relationship between migration and armed conict, by analysing the little explored case of Colombians eeing abroad and their transnational political activities. Based on qualitative research conducted with Colombian migrants in the United Kingdom and Spain, this article has looked at their transnational political attitudes and activities related to the situation of armed conict and search for peace in Colombia, both at the individual and collective levels. As well as raising the prole of a migration ow about which little is known, this paper seeks to contribute to recent academic and policymaking interest in diaspora and transnational migrant communities and ` -vis conict in their home countries, highlighting both its their role vis-a potential and limitations in the context of Colombian diaspora politics. It is clear that the transnational ramications of the Colombian conict are many, and that the diaspora, given its politics of in-between (Jones-Correa, 1998), has a role to play. This is beginning to be recognised, as the following quote, taken from a seminar on migration and the formation of transnational communities organised by the Colombian government, shows:
[These could have profound effects on] the economic development of the country, the relationship between the State and civil society, and perhaps more importantly, in the search, and possible success of a solution to the prolonged conict affecting the country. (Guarnizo, 2003: 26)

This was also acknowledged during the celebration of the II Plenaria Internacional por la Paz de Colombia (Second International Plenary for Peace in Colombia), celebrated in 2007 in Madrid, when participants highlighted the need to work from a transnational civil society approach:
Today, more than ever, the active presence of civil society in the democratic building of peace [in Colombia] is needed ... There are in the
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country many expressions of civil resistance. Society and the victims of all types of violence are now key actors in bringing the nation in favour of Peace. But the Colombian civil society needs the decisive support of Latin America, North America and the European Union and their institutions, as well as their governments and civil society, with the purpose of revitalising and prioritising a negotiated political solution.15

The work done by Colombians, mostly refugees, and others in Europe, although not very signicant in quantitative terms, is enhanced by the role that Europe has assumed in relation to the conict and search for peace in Colombia.16 As one respondent argued, although their activities could be seen as small steps, they were important, on the one hand, because they helped sustain civil society work for peace in Colombia, and on the other, because the conict in Colombia is not only a Colombian problem, but a global one. Nevertheless, there are also some limitations, which relate to the divisions and fragmentation of the diaspora, as well as the nature and evolution of the conict in Colombia and at the international level. Zunzer (2004) argues that to make full use of the positive impacts that diaspora communities can have on civil conict transformation in the homeland, conditions in both the origin and host countries must be right, and also at the international level. However, Colombian activists do not face the same favourable international context as other Latin American exiles did in the 1970s and 1980s (see Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Also, hopes for a negotiated end to the conict in Colombia have diminished after the collapse of the last peace process. According to an academic expert interviewed in the United Kingdom, the most likely positive scenario for the country would be a gradual decline in the intensity of the conict together with greater political and social stability. He believed that, in this context, the diaspora could play a key role by strengthening international support for the country. Finally, since the research undertaken dealt mostly with rst-generation migrants, it will be interesting to observe how the transnational politics of the two communities studied change or do not as they become more established through subsequent generations.

NOTES
1. See, for instance, Keck and Sikkink (1998) on the role of transnational advocacy networks working on environmental politics, human rights and womens rights.

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2. The role that Croatians abroad played in the conict in the Balkans has been used to illustrate how diasporas can help perpetuate a conict (see Carter, 2005), while the Sri Lankan diaspora is seen as having played a key role in peace negotiations, although they also contributed to the conict (Fair, 2007). The Eritrean diaspora, on the other hand, has been considered a key actor in post-conict reconstruction (see Koser, 2007). 3. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e492ad6# (31 05 2010). In addition, Colombia has one of the worlds largest internally displaced populations, amounting to more than 3 million people (ibid). 4. For a recent analysis of the conict, see Rojas and Meltzer (2005). 5. For a debate and denition of old and new diasporas, see Van Hear (1998). 6. Research conducted at Queen Mary, University of London, and nanced by the ESRC (PTA-030-2002-01565). 7. Since the aim of the research was not to nd a representative sample, the people interviewed were selected to reect the wide array of migrant transnational politics, as well as the opinion of non-active migrants. They were contacted using previous connections, known groups and organisations, and snowball techniques. Despite the sensitivity of the themes explored, people were generally open and generous with their answers. In some cases, they found it liberating to talk about their experiences; in others, the fact that I was an outsider (non-Colombian) helped to dispel mistrust. Although the research used a comparative approach, I will only draw briey on this here. I also used a gendered approach, looking at the political engagement of both men and women, but I do no explore such implications here. 8. These are municipal registry gures from the national statistics agency (INE): http://www.ine.es/jaxi/tabla.do (12 11 09). 9. The period from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, when inter-party warfare and conicts over land left thousands of people dead. 10. See Keck and Sikkink (1998) for more on international involvement in the human rights movement in Latin America. 11. An ex-worker of Coras explained that one of the things that had contributed to the almost closure of the organisation was internal disagreements about whether the focus of work should be on the community or on Colombia. 12. See Bermudez (2010), for more on the connections between politics here and there. 13. See http://www.taulacolombia.org/indexcas.html. 14. Examples of these initiatives are Colombia Nos Une (Colombia Unites Us), Conexion Colombia (Colombian Connection), Colombia es Pasion (Colombia is Passion) and Yo Creo en Colombia (I Believe in Colombia). 15. See http://www.nodo50.org/asipazcol/CONVOCATORIA_II_PLENARIA_ INTERNACIONAL_POR_LA_PAZ_FINAL%5B1%5D.pdf (02 11 07). 16. The EU has supported peace efforts in Colombia through offers for mediation, funding for peace and social projects, defending human rights. For more on this see the web sites of the EU and the Spanish research group CIP-FUHEM and its Colombia Europe project.

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