Prishtina, 12 April, 2024
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, participated in the opening ceremony of the first edition of the School for Diaspora Diplomacy, organized by the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.
In his speech, Prime Minister Kurti showed how it is impossible to talk about the history of our country without including the diaspora. “In many ways, our diaspora represents a natural extension of our communities around the world. It is a diaspora very connected to their homeland”.
He also spoke about the role and contribution of emigration in our nation-building and in many different spheres, especially in the economy and the impact on the country’s development.
“The Kosovo diaspora has concretely shaped the way our country interacts with the world, assuming the unofficial role of citizen ambassador. This is also the reason why we say that we have had ambassadors and embassies since before we achieved freedom in 1999 and before we declared independence in 2008, and they were representatives of our diaspora in Western Europe, in the United Kingdom, in the States United States of America and around the world.” said the prime minister.
He also mentioned the case of Kushtrim Xhakli in Finland, who co-created the KosovaDiplo365 platform with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Professor Besnik Pula who contributed to the creation of the Sovereign Fund, but also the most recent case of the company from the diaspora in Switzerland which won a public auction for the construction of 100MW solar panels in Kosovo, having a positive impact on the future energy reform.
“So this is the essence of this school, to bring to light more knowledge about how we can all improve diaspora engagement, both in the context of the development of our respective countries, and to explore and consider innovations in how the engagement of the diaspora can work in strengthening the ties between our countries” underlined the Prime Minister.
The School of Diaspora Diplomacy program is designed to cultivate and support the creation of a global network of career diplomats, as well as to build their capacities in the field of diaspora diplomacy, as a topic that is beginning to receive more attention in central politics around the world. Diplomats from over 30 countries around the world will join us in this first edition of the Diaspora Diplomacy School.
Deputy Prime Minister Donika Gërvalla Schwarz and Deputy Minister Liza Gashi also participated in the ceremony.
Prime Minister Kurti’s complete speech:
Your excellency Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of the Republic of Kosova,
Dear Ms. Liza Gashi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora,
Your excellences ambassadors and representatives of international organizations,
Dear Dr. Martin Russell, founder of the Global Diaspora Insights, great to have you back, a renown diaspora expert and friend of Kosova,
Dear honorable members of Parliament and Government of our country,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honor to be here with you to inaugurate the Diaspora Diplomacy School at the Innovation Training Park here in Prizren, a park that also represents in many ways our strong connection with Germany, a country that is host to a great portion of our diaspora. Just in Germany alone, Kosova has 542 thousand people whose roots stem from our country and who are living in Germany.
Over a half of those, 330 thousand to be exact, have been born in Kosova. Their immigration story varies: small children escaping genocide, political activists escaping prosecution, and young people seeking education and growth outside. But what they all have in common is that they are mirrors of the reality and the hope this country holds.
It is impossible to tell the story of our country without including the story of our diaspora. In many ways, our diaspora represents a natural extension of our communities around the world. It is a very attached diaspora to their home country.
The Republic of Kosova has 1.8 million residents, but there are about 2.5 million citizens. So it can be said that almost every third citizen is not a resident. We have a very large diaspora, and it has had a great historical role in politics, economy and culture. They are our key and bridge to a world of opportunities, insights, and influence and a powerful force within.
Our diaspora was at the heart of the creation of our country and continues to help steer our communities to a more prosperous future. In our case, like in many of the countries represented in this room, the stories of impact from our diaspora are not footnotes in the history, but central characters in the stories we have created and that we continue to write.
Over the past five years alone, our compatriots have infused over 4.5 billion euros in remittances, with investments exceeding 1.5 billion, as reported by the Central Bank of Kosova. And because our experience holds similarities to that of yours, we encourage you to share your diaspora stories, learn from others, and build relationships for diaspora engagement that last long beyond your days and direct engagement in our country, through this Diaspora Diplomatic School.
As mentioned, with the example of the tremendous economic impact that our diaspora has contributed in our country, our people living abroad are not merely a showcase of various successes and the ones that individuals have achieved in a country other than the one in which they were born or other than the one from which their family originated. Rather, our diasporas also plays a critical role in representation, shaping our foreign affairs, and changing the country from within.
Kosova’s diaspora has concretely shaped the way our country interacts with the world, taking upon their shoulders the unofficial role of citizen ambassadors. That’s why we say that we did have ambassadors and embassies, before we got liberated in 1999, and before we declared our independence in 2008, and they were representatives of our diaspora in Western Europe, in UK, US and all over the world.
In this vein, one of our citizens abroad, Kushtrim Xhakli in Finland, has co-created an online platform together with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, KosovaDiplo365 to help our people share their stories, and the achievements of our young Republic, on the global stage. KosovaDiplo365, well this year had 366 days, so this means that KosovaDiplo will get one day off, this is a good news, but the bad news is that this day is already gone, it was February 29th. So we have to work 24/7 with KosovaDiplo365, not only in this year but for many years to come. And this has a given a new meaning to our mantra: every citizen, a diplomat.
Members of our diaspora have also upheld inspiring civic activism on issues within the country, ranging from anti-corruption to education to economic development, and various other fields. One notable member of our diaspora, professor Besnik Pula, who teaches sociology at Virginia Tech in US, even spearheaded the creation of a new economic institution, the Sovereign Wealth Fund, which has been approved by the Parliament and will soon be established. This represents the perks of our economic transformation in Kosova.
It is this dynamism of diaspora engagement within domestic and foreign policy that accelerates the need for this school, which is being led by the Diplomatic Academy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora. We are at the foothills of an opportunity to reimagine a more balanced architecture of diplomatic and development cooperation for the world in which we live. Creative and impactful tools for an ever changing landscape.
Diasporas have the unique advantage of living in hybrid worlds. Their superpower is that they understand the world from multiple perspectives. They are complex problem solvers, they are empathetic, they are courageous, and they are powerful. Their diverse experience grants them insights that are out of reach for most of us identifying with one country only.
The commendable Swiss environmentalism is being translated into a green transition at home. This isn’t wishful ideology; it’s a concrete reality we witnessed recently when a Kosovar Swiss diaspora company won a public auction to build 100MW solar panels in Kosova, thereby reforming our energy future. This single story speaks volumes about our country, the Kosovars who emigrated from it, and what the future holds. In the past, contributing meant sending money for survival, earned through honest but sometimes daunting work. Now, entrepreneurs and engineers are increasingly involved in shaping public policy, together with discussions happening in rooms in Washington and Paris and worldwide.
So, this is the essence of this school, to bring to light more insight on how we can all improve our diaspora engagement, both in the context of the development of our respective countries and to explore and probe innovations on how diaspora engagement can work in strengthening the ties between our countries.
And why now for this school?
Everyone in this room knows that diaspora engagement is not easy. People left, but not really, they’re still here, and we have seen that it is magical when it works well. The fact that they left but not really, and at the same time that they keep coming back. For our diaspora, I believe that it is valid perhaps more than for others to be called a homesick diaspora. Because they keep coming back, time and again, not only during summer holidays. But during summer holidays for example, July and August, there are 27 direct flights, from Prishtina International Airport, “Adem Jashari”, to Switzerland alone. It is very difficult to find as much busses who travel from Prishtina to another town, like Prizren, Peja or Gjilan, Mitrovica, Ferizaj, Gjakova, but Prishtina-Switzerland, 27 flights per day.
And, that’s why at the front page of The Economist over a decade ago was not wrong when it said there is something called “The Magic of Diasporas”. So it’s like a specter, physically not here but always with us, in one way or another, and for those who have doubts they do keep coming back many times per year.
The magic of diasporas lives in the art form of sharing. There have been challenges and opportunities in our diaspora work that hold important lessons for other countries in the process of developing relationships with their own diasporas.
Indeed, over the past three years, our Government has been a pioneer in diaspora engagement. Among other initiatives, we’ve increased funding for diaspora projects by over 75%; we’ve engaged dozens of our young professionals abroad in our state institutions through the Citizen Diplomacy Fellowship Program; and we’ve held over 100 meetings with our citizens around the world through the Diaspora Dialogue initiative; and we’ve amended our election laws to allow citizens abroad to vote directly at our embassies and consulates. All those who have the right to vote, we make sure that their voice will be heard and that their vote will be counted. Just recently, we launched for the first time the eDiaspora platform, with the module of census registration.
We are registering diaspora online in Kosova’s census for the first time. We want to know how big we are, but also how large our diaspora is. Scanning the registration, having the right mirror in front of you, helps a great deal to plan better, but at the same time to do smarter and more efficient budget allocations in the years to come.
At the same time, we also know that we can learn a lot from the work of our partners from around the world in what they do in diaspora engagement. And so, this school, for Kosova, is a network to learn from and share with our counterparts. It is also a network that we want to build in the years ahead as we all collectively look to engage our respective diasporas. We know that through this network we will all be able to work with our diasporas more effectively, so we also see this school as an investment in our promise to our diaspora to engage them in increasingly more effective ways, building on our successes up to this point.
This school is a thank you to our diaspora in many ways for allowing us as a country to step into a leadership role in convening and curating new knowledge and partnerships on diaspora engagement. It is exciting to hear that you will be learning more from our diaspora through this school during the Diaspora Power Talks. You will see how they are leading Kosova into new worlds of opportunity and for that, we thank them very much.
At a time of uncertainty and of unparalleled geopolitical changes and challenges, we look forward to breaking new ground and creating more positive change through an inspiring community.
Thank you!
Last modified: April 16, 2024