Diasporas And International Relations

The term “diaspora” has long been associated by historians and social scientists with the dispersal of the Jews from Palestine, their homeland, following their defeat by the Romans in 70 A.D. More recently, the concept has been generalized to refer to any population which has migrated from its country of origin and settled in a foreign land, but maintains its continuity as a community. Thus, our working definition of diaspora is “a minority ethnic group of migrant origin which maintains sentimental or material links with its land of origin.” This definition excludes migrants who take over or form a state and become its dominant element, for example the British in Australia and New Zealand. It excludes groups such as the Afrikaners in South Africa who have severed their sentimental and economic ties with their country of origin. It explicitly excludes ethnic groups whose minority status results not from migration but from conquest, annexation or arbitrary boundary arrangements; such minorities as the Albanians in Yugoslavia or the Somali in Ethiopia may become involved in irredentist conflicts. These differ from diaspora politics and require separate treatment. 1