This work explores the role of homeland associations in governance processes in Mongolia. Homeland associations (in Mongolian: nutgiin zövlöl) are formed in the context of migration, wherein people ‘originally’ from a certain rural locality who have migrated to an urban centre form an association.
The aim of the association is to provide assistance of various kinds back to their locality of origin. Unlike political parties, homeland associations are not mass organisations – their membership is constituted only of political, cultural, sporting and business elites. This case study was multi-sited – we selected Uvs aimag (province) homeland association and in March 2015 analysed all the different layers of this institution, from the village level to the capital city.
