On this panel we explore diaspora policies of sending states from many different angles. Gerasimos Tsourapas focuses on the case of Egypt and asks, Does emigration constitute an opportunity or a threat to non-democratic regimes? Fiona Adamson is exploring how domestic politics within a state contribute both to the creation of a diaspora itself, but also the emergence and maintenance of intra-diasporic cleavages--drawing examples from the MENA region and discussing how these play out within Europe. Phil Triadafilopoulos draws our attention to states that have sought to limit transnationalism, namely Canada and Germany, and tries to account for these cases. Ana Margheritis turns to Argentina’s approach to emigration in the past decade trying to account for the timing of early attempts to reach out to citizens abroad, the launching of some concrete programs, and the management of relations with migrant associations, as well as the reasons why such attempts have lost momentum lately. Maria Koinova invites as to factor in a positionality logic for engaging diasporas abroad, a socio-spatial dimension that has different properties in different contexts. Finally, Harris Mylonas proposes a framework for the comparative study of state-planned diaspora management policies—which include both policies that cultivate links with co-ethnics and/or citizens abroad and policies regulating the return of these co-ethnics and/or citizens.