The Diaspora as a Multicultural Paradigm

Abstract This chapter examines how the term “diaspora,” crucial in the context of the history and the identity of the Jews, has been expanded in its use from the Age of Discovery until the present, and applied to the dispersion of other peoples from out of their homelands. Over the course of the past few decades, the reality, number, and size of ethnic and religious communities dispersed around the world have revealed that the diasporic phenomenon can no longer be relegated to a past which reduces it solely to the idea of a punishment and catastrophe—moreover, that it was characterized by incontrovertible permanence. The chapter details how the globalization of exchanges, the increased mobility of ethnic groups, and the new technologies of information and communication are all concomitant factors that have contributed to the expansion of the concept of diaspora as an expression of multiculturalism.