Transnational Colombian Immigrant Organizations and Development

Colombian organizations have been very busy these days organizing events to help the estimated two million people affected by the heavy rain that fell in various regions of Colombia last year and which caused slides, inundations, etc. In the greater New York area (NY, NJ and Connecticut), Colombian associations organized, among other events, a gastronomic/humoristic/dance festival in Connecticut, an Ayudaton (“helpathon”) in Queens, and a large banquet to raise funds in New York. With these efforts, organizations are responding to the call for assistance made by the president of Colombia, who was in the city talking to union leaders in order to promote the signing of a free-trade agreement with Colombia. This episode is an excellent example of a dominant type of transnational activity in which Colombian organizations in the U.S. are involved. In 1999, after an earthquake hit the coffee-producing region, immigrant organizations were created, others were revived, and all rushed in to assist their compatriots; this time, without the president’s call for assistance. While this type of assistance might be common, the convergence of projects on single regions or coordination with state and international relief institutions is not. Aside from these moments of national solidarity, Colombian organizations decide about the projects they want to develop on their own, choose the project and the places to carry them out according to their own preferences and personal contacts, establish their own connections in Colombia, and resort to their own means in order to monitor the completion of their projects. How can we explain this type of involvement of Colombian immigrant organizations in their home-country? In order to answer this question, I examine in this paper the main characteristics of Colombian organizations in the U.S., the type of involvement they maintain in their home-country, and the partnerships they have established with the state and/or various institutions and organizations of civil society.