Executive Summary
Purpose: To profile the Armenian diaspora in two target countries, the United States and
France using “Big Data” mining techniques. Databases are analysed to create demographic
and skills profiles containing identifiers such as education level, and field of employment and
field of study. To better understand skilled diaspora communities and how they might
be reached for development through knowledge transfer initiatives, interviews with key
stakeholders, experts, and diaspora members supplement quantitative analysis.

Design and Methodology: A mixed methods approach melds field work, literature review,
and analysis of mined databases and registers for a holistic picture of diaspora communities.
A unique mining method analyses select databases to identify diaspora representatives of the
business and academic communities. It then drills down into a subset of diaspora defined as
highly skilled under the OECD understanding of the term (Chaloff and Lemaître, 2009, p. 11).
Qualitative analysis of previous studies on the diaspora, literature reviews, as well as key
stakeholder interviews and focus groups in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Marseille
contribute to overall research. Quantitative analysis of datasets for onomastic recognition of
Armenian names provides our proxy for skilled diaspora. Analysis of web-analytics data from
Armenian news outlets supplement analysis of general communities with additional features
such as interests, affinities, and top stories of importance disaggregated by zip code.

Key Findings: Emigration patterns of skilled diaspora reveal a preference for higher education in the Russian Federation and the United States, though Germany is a more popular country of destination for professional experience. Interviewees in the beginning and end-stages of their careers were the most interested in diaspora affairs, with those stable in their jobs and not looking for other enriching activities seeing little benefit to engagement.

As it was revealed, French-Armenians reading news online trend considerably younger than
Armenian-American or global Armenian diasporas, with 19 per cent of readership identified
as 18-24 and 34 per cent as 25-34 years old. In comparison, readers of Armenian news in
the United States are 6 per cent 18-24 year old and 16 per cent 25-34, having significant
implications for engagement strategies for youth in both countries.

Principal Recommendations: The Government of Armenia should engage directly with institutions, cities, and professional associations in areas where diaspora are shown to have large representation. It should do so using extant networks, feeding into a coordinated, inclusive strategy, first focusing on sectors with low barriers to entry and existing diaspora initiatives, serving as an incubator and facilitator. Areas of demonstrated increased online engagement (such as spikes in readership from youth in France) should be explored for best practices to bring to other communities. Top cities of destination for student and labour migrants should be the focus of temporary return initiatives and knowledge transfer opportunities.