Our diaspora leads us to think of things much differently

My answer is that because wherever people go they will always have some kind of attachment to their country of origin and it differs from one person to another some would look at these elections as a new hope for their country and might change it to one that is more advanced and stable so they could live back in it or to feel like they are still part of their country and of course their are those who do it because the feel like it or it makes them look cool.

What’s even more surprising is when people vote for the so-called extremist politicians back home. Everyone has the right to their opinion, I agree, but it just seems strange people would vote for someone who stands against everything that is in the West – the right of free speech being one of them. Yet they choose to enjoy the liberties of their new homes and live in peace.

I’d say your generalizations are *very* general and quite in-accurate. Whilst I do know quite a few people who have been out of their country for a long time, they are seriously outnumbered by those who only plan to be here for a year or so.

That means the government will still be in power when they return.

Also many aspects of government affect expats even though they are abroad, such as taxes and so forth.

The situation for my family is that my parents came here to ‘seek their fortunes’ and still send money back to India to my grandparents etc. They plan to retire there so voting will effect them eventually and even if it didn’t it’ll still affect those who live there now that they care about.

I disagree with “To change a country, you have to be a part of it. You vote for who deserves it, and be part of making it better in whatever way you can while residing in it.” The average resident of a country does very little to change that place. Maybe doctors could set up free clinics or teachers could teach in villages, but what proportion of residents actually do that? Governments do have the biggest impacts on countries.

Salam Mona,
I am referring to this paragraph specifically:

“What puzzles me, is that thousands of people living for all those years outside their home lands, stand in line for hours and hours to just vote for a new political leader in the country they have not been living in for ages, and most likely don’t want to live in again. The country that they decided to leave, decided to not go back with their knowledge and education, decided to not go back to help stimulate the economy by starting new business ventures to compete with other nations, and decided to not introduce the positive things they learned living abroad to enhance the life situation and thinking of their people.”

See, most of my Mideastern friends here are from Turkey or Iran. The Turkish and Kurdish immigrant parents from Turkey are the poorest of the poor, peasants who had no work in Anatolia and came to Europe in the 60s, 70s, 80s. (My husband’s parents were amongst them.)
These people loved their country, and way of living, and many had and still have a (very prejudiced and sometimes racist) dislike for the Europeans, particularly Germans. They came for work – they always always hoped to return once they had saved enough or the situation back home had improved. Nothing improved – the Turkish army waged a costly war on the Kurdish freedom/separatist movement. War, striving economy, violence, torture – that living situation seemed worse than the “mere” unemployment and poverty they’d run away from. Being in Europe, they worked hard in extremely low-skilled labor – also because they never bothered to learn the language. After all, they clung to the idea of going back as soon as possible. They watched satellite tv from back home all day – their children entered school with very poor German knowledge even though these kids were born in the middle of Germany or Austria.
The parent generation after 30 years in these countries still know hardly any German – the children and grandchildren are doing better of course. They are somewhat in between – in Turkey they would be called “almancilar” (“Germanians” – a term specifically for Turks grown in Germany), and be treated as foreigners because of their accent in Turkish (remember, they never lived in the country). In Germany, they somewhat remain foreigners too because their language skill shortcomings created in early years, and in later years their extremely low educated parents did not see how important knowing the language REALLY well is particularly for migrant youth who will face discrimination in the labor market most likely, could never fully be caught up for.

So why does the parent generation vote in the homeland? They live in the homeland in mind. They watch only Turkish TV. They know every Turkish politician, but hardly any German ones. (They vote in Austria and Germany, but only based on hearsay – mostly the Socialdemocrats because a. they are the classical workers’ party, which these people are, and b. they are immigrant friendly.) All they have in mind is the homeland, and they have created ghettos where they do not have to meet with Germans at all – they have Turkish bakeries, community centres, doctors, butchers, restaurants, markets, cafés. They need not speak a word of German in their everyday life and neighbourhood. They’ve actually built a colony for the homeland Turkey.

The young ones – well they are part of this parallel society as well. They too hear about Turkish politics on TV all the time. They know more about the German political landscape, and most likely vote there in more informed ways (ironically, many of them vote for the far right parties because they don’t want any more immigrants to come – aside imported brides, of course). Yet they live as much in Turkey as in Germany – in their minds.

I’ve lived in Paris for some time during my education, and found the first Arab communities of my life – there are very few Arabs in the country I live in. Some Egyptians, but they prefer to stay with Egyptians only, but my Arab family is from Jordan. I never met one Jordanian in Austria – oh wait! one girl at university
Well in Paris the Arab communities work very much like the Turks in the German countries. Youth born in France, with little language skills, in the Arab ghettos (which happen to be much more miserable than the Turkish ones in the German lands – I think that is because of the German welfare states). They too live in satellite (TV) communities in the middle of France, but in Arabia in mind.

Oh and btw many elderly people DO go back when they retire, to Maghreb or Turkey, depending whether they lived in France or Germany. So it is kind of logical they voted for parties they want in power – and beware: These people are poor economic,not political migrants or fugitives/forcefully displaced people like most Palestinians are. They only went to Europe for work, came from the countryside and always hated the fact they had to leave their homeland.

Now as for Persians:
THAT is something completely different. Among my Persian friends there is a suicidal mood today; of course they all voted.
Their families tend to be highly educated, they got good education and jobs too. They speak perfect German and Farsi. If they could choose many of them would live in Iran immediately – if the Islamic regime were no more. So these people have a vital interest in the elections – they got chased out by their own countrymen who established a regime they could not live with. They would return without much thought, but not into the repressive theocracy there is today. So how could they NOT vote? If you had the option of voting either for the Israeli occupation or against it, and you had reason to believe if you voted against it they would really withdraw from power, would you not do it?!
That is pretty much the situation of Persians – sure the elections are not trully free. Only candidates approved by the theocratic regime can even run. But of those candidates they can of course choose the most progressive one they can reasonably believe will make Iran make a “livable” country for them again.
I’d think if I were them, and loved my country dearly, but hated the current rulers with as much passion – not voting for its improvement and better future would be an absolute duty.

So for VERY different reasons these Mideastern immigrants in Europe have stayed in their home country in mind – some because they are of very low educational background and would prefer to live a countryside life in their home, some of the educational elite which got chased out, and would equally like to live in the homeland again. They all share the interest they actually would rather return if they saw perspectives there.
And how do you create perspectives?
By voting for someone who seems capable of building a better country for the future.
So my conclusion is: Only people who left their countries completely voluntarily, who have no intention of ever coming back, no matter how the country develops – those people can fully assimilate in their new country, and will not give a dime for who is voted in power in their homeland. That is the people who have a new homeland where they vote with pleasure, actually.

@Nithiya:
I agree determining who is in power is the essential thing to do for your country.
But well if everyone returns to the country with a determination, and helps build it – that can be immensely powerful.
I think the countries who lost World War II are good examples: Germany, Austria, Japan were completely destroyed.
Germany and Japan became two of the most powerful national economies from zero in a couple of decades.

For Germany and Austria there was definitely not one stone left on the other, as you say in German. They were devastated. Nothing left to live from. And occupied by the winning parties of WWII.

German populations were chased out of Slavic countries (they had been there for centuries). These people started from 0, too, and helped rebuild the country.
I think they did an amazing job.

It might be the task-oriented mind of the German peoples, they are indeed very efficient and hard working. And strict
I once heard in a discussion had the Palestinians worked so hard for the past decades as those displaced Germans (“Sudetendeutsche”), they would have built a state already. One could certainly think the people in refugee camps should have long built villages, and continued with their lives.
I think these two cases are hard to compare since the Germans lived in the countries of their “national” brothers and sisters, and were welcomed and helped, the Palestinians at least in what is left from Palestine live with a hostile and agressive neighbour who continuously destroys with superior technology whatever they build up.

What can be compared in my opinion:
How the hell do Palestinians live in refugee camps for generations in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria?? How come they are not helped, supported, integrated, and can build up something new like the Germans helped the displaced German brothers and sisters after WWII?

So, well, one certainly can change a lot when rolling up one’s sleeves to build up one’s country. But for doing that the home country needs to be safe. For Palestinians in today’s Palestine, it is NOT. For exiled Persians in Iran, it is not.
One can only demand work for the country if the people can live without being tortured and persecuted by secret police or revolutionary guards like in Iran, or without living in constant threat from Israel and also from some inner-Palestinian conflicts in the case of Palestine.

Talking about who choose to leave their countries, maybe they felt in their gut that they are ‘somehow’ contributing for a better future of their society by such vote; you know, since they already left and have nothing else to provide for their country, they vote. Ironically if they have the choice to return back they will not.

Anyway I can’t generalise because I know other people who might retun to their original countries after securing themselves financially, such as Egyptians who work in Gulf but they return back at last.

As for the Palestinan Diaspora, I can’t put myself in your shoes, but this is a very complicated political and social problem due to many things.