Abstract

The study aimed to establish the mechanisms and institutional conditions through which mobile ruling, opposition, technocratic and economic actors converted external resources into domestic political effects in postcolonial settings. The research combined structural-functional, typological, comparative, case-study and content-analysis methods. The empirical comparison covered Africa, Latin America and South Asia through South Africa, Ghana, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, India and Sri Lanka. The analysis was diachronic: it traced formative exile, return and diaspora-governance trajectories from post-independence and authoritarian-transition periods to 2025, while contemporary migration, governance and democracy data were assessed mainly for 2020-2025. Elite migration was treated as a political process distinct from ordinary population movement. Although recorded international migration reached 304 million people in 2024 and one postcolonial recipient attracted more than 111 billion United States dollars in remittances in 2022, the political weight of mobile elites followed from authority, expertise and capital rather than from sheer numbers. Six mechanisms were established: exile, returnee technocratic transfer, diaspora lobbying, transnational party networking, economic elite mobility and the state institutionalisation of diaspora engagement. The comparison produced three regional pathways: liberation-exile and reconstruction in Africa, authoritarian exile and democratic restoration in Latin America, and diaspora diplomacy or conflict externalisation in South Asia. Across the cases, migration acquired transformative force only where external resources entered institutions open to domestic contestation. The findings may be useful for comparative analysts and policymakers assessing diaspora engagement, external voting and returnee appointments

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