Transborder forced migration is one of the most impactful experiences for families. Family separation, transgenerational trauma, and difficult conditions for parental care are common challenges for people in exile. State institutions in receiving countries may aggravate these impacts: Immigration laws can impede family reunification, and measures to support refugee families may paradoxically hinder parental care. These effects of forced migration and the role of receiving countries are well established in scholarly works. But little is known about how home country institutions designed to connect with its diaspora impact exiled individuals and families. My research studies this unexamined phenomenon through the lens of Colombia’s assistance and reparation policy for its exiled population. Using interviews, participant observation, and photovoice, I investigate how exiles make legible to their home state the harms inflicted with forced migration, how the state responds to exiles’ grievances, and how the promise of diasporic reparations impacts life in exile. 

My research will have theoretical, policy-related, and social implications. Theoretically, it will examine the paradoxes that surface when a refugee-producing country attempts diasporic humanitarian interventions without a clear-cut transition to peace. At the policy level, it will shed light on how reparations can be more meaningful for exiles. I already coauthored a policy report recommending the Colombian Unit for Victims to design reparation measures that include families and strengthen support networks for those who had to separate from theirs. I also explore the potential of participatory photography as a method that creates opportunities for healing for the research participants. The photovoice project I implemented with 15 Colombian exiles in the US allowed research participants to revisit their experiences of forced migration and publicly voice their concerns through art. We launched a photo exhibition in the Colombian consulate in New York and the Colombian Embassy in Washington DC, a  webpage, and a photo book that we will hand to 170 Colombian state institutions and NGO’s. The public reach of this photovoice project and its positive impact on research participants signals a methodological approach to ethically conduct research with individuals who have experienced trauma.