Diaspora

Diaspora refers to a population that has been dispersed from an original homeland to multiple destinations and that maintains a collective identity, memory, and connection with the place of origin and with other communities of the same background. The term originally described the scattering of the Jewish people, and was later applied to Armenians, Greeks, Africans transported through slavery, and many other groups. William Safran proposed an influential set of criteria, including dispersal, collective memory of the homeland, partial alienation in the host society, and a commitment to return or support, while Robin Cohen distinguished victim, labor, trade, imperial, and cultural diasporas. Stuart Hall described cultural identity in the Caribbean diaspora as a matter of becoming as well as being, and Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic emphasized hybrid cultural flows across the ocean. Avtar Brah’s concept of diaspora space explored how diasporic and native identities are mutually constituted, and Rogers Brubaker questioned whether diaspora is used too broadly. Arjun Appadurai and Steven Vertovec linked diasporas to transnationalism and global cultural flows. Diasporas contribute remittances, networks, and political influence, but also face discrimination and contested belonging. Diaspora remains central to research on migration, identity, globalization, and ethnicity.