Diaspora

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The term diaspora (in Ancient Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture.

Origins

Initially the term diaspora meant "the scattered" and was used by the Ancient Greeks to refer to citizens of a dominant city-state who emigrated to a conquered land with the purpose of colonization, to assimilate the territory into the empire. The current meaning started to develop from this original sense when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek; the word "diaspora" then was used to refer to the population of Jews exiled from Judea in 586 BC by the Babylonians, and from Jerusalem in AD 136 by the Roman Empire. Probably the earliest use of the word in reference specifically to Jewish exiles is in the Septuagint version of Deuteronomy 28:25, "thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth".

It subsequently came to be used to refer interchangeably to the historical movements of the dispersed ethnic population of Israel, the cultural development of that population, or the population itself. The term was assimilated from Greek into English in the mid-20th century. An academic field of diasporal studies has been established relating to the wider modern meaning of 'diaspora'.

Sometimes refugees of other origins or ethnicities may be called a diaspora, but the two terms are far from synonymous. Long-term expatriates in significant numbers from one particular country may also be referred to as a diaspora. In all cases, the term diaspora carries a sense of displacement; that is, the population so described find themselves for whatever reason separated from their national territory; and usually they have a hope, or at least a desire, to return to their homeland at some point, if the "homeland" still exists in any meaningful sense.

History contains numerous diaspora-like events. The Migration Period relocations, which included several phases, are just one set of many. The first phase Migration Period displacement from between AD 300 and 500 included relocation of the Goths, (Ostrogoths, Visigoths), Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic tribes, (Burgundians, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi, Alemanni, Varangians), Alans and numerous Slavic tribes. The second phase, between AD 500 and 900, saw Slavic, Turkic, and other tribes on the move, resettling in Eastern Europe and gradually making it predominantly Slavic, and affecting Anatolia and the Caucasus as the first Turkic peoples (Avars, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Pechenegs) arrived. The last phase of the migrations saw the coming of the Magyars and the Viking expansion out of Scandinavia.

However, such colonizing migrations cannot be considered as diasporas indefinitely; over very long periods, eventually the migrants assimilate into the settled area so completely that it becomes their new homeland. Thus the modern population of Germany do not feel that they belong in the Siberian steppes that the Alemanni left 16 centuries ago; the Hungarian Magyars are not drawn back to the Altai; and the English descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes do not yearn to reoccupy the plains of northwest Germany. In comparison, however, the Jewish Sephardim of Iberia and Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe also settled in those areas for many centuries, and yet did not assimilate because of strong Jewish traditions of separation, a religious commitment to their own kind, and intolerance on the part of the majority.

One of the largest and most historic diasporas of pre-modern times was the African Diaspora which began at the beginning of the 16th century. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, about ten million people from West, West-Central and Southeast Africa were brought to the Western Hemisphere as slaves. This population would leave a major influence on the culture of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish New World colonies.

The 20th century and beyond

The twentieth century saw huge population movements. Some involved large-scale transfers of people by government action and the desire to avoid conflict. Some diasporas occurred because the people accepted, or could not avoid, the consequences of political decisions, such as the end of Colonialism. Some of these events include Stalin's desire to populate Eastern Russia, Central Asia, and Siberia and the transfer of millions of people between India and Pakistan in the 1947 Partition. Other diasporas have occurred as people fled ethnically directed persecution, oppression or Genocide. Examples of these include: the Armenians who were forced out of Anatolia by the Ottoman Turks during the Armenian Genocide (1915–1918), with survivors settling in areas of the Levant; and European Jews fleeing the Holocaust during World War II. Other eastern European nationalities moved west, away from Soviet annexation, and the Iron Curtain regimes after World War II. Ethnic Germans were expelled by the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia, and moved west.

During and after the Cold War-era, huge populations of refugees migrated from areas of conflict, especially from then-developing countries. In the Middle East, the Palestinian diaspora was created as a result of the establishment of Israel in 1948 and further enlarged by the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Many Iranians fled the 1979 Iranian Revolution following the fall of the Shah and thousands of Iraquis have fled conflict since 2003.

In the Indian subcontinent thousands of former subjects of the British Raj went to the UK after India and Pakistan became independent in 1947. In Southeast Asia 30,000 French colons from Cambodia were displaced after being expelled by the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. Many diasporas occurred in Africa including, over 80,000 South Asians being expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1975, and the Hutus and Tutsis trying to escape the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.

In South America, thousands of Uruguayan refugees fled to Europe during the military rule in the 1970s and 80s. In Central America, Nicaraguans, Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Costa Ricans and Panamanians fled conflict and economic conditions. The millions of Third World refugees created more numerous diasporal populations, but the principle of peoples becoming refugees because of war precedes written history.

Many economic migrants may gather in such numbers outside their home country that they form an effective diaspora: for instance, the Turkish Gastarbeiter in Germany; South Asians in the Persian Gulf; and Filipinos throughout the world. Some diasporas are due to natural disasters, as has happened throughout history. In a rare example of a diaspora in a prosperous Western democracy, there is talk of a New Orleans, or Gulf Coast, "diaspora" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina of 2005, since a significant number of evacuees have not started to return.

List of notable diasporas

History provides us with many examples of notable diasporas. See the main article for a list.

In popular culture

Futuristic science fiction sometimes refers to a "Diaspora," taking place when much of humanity leaves Earth to settle on far-flung "colony worlds."

The song "Prayer of the Refugee" from Rise Against's album "The Sufferer & the Witness" was originally named "Diaspora" when it was leaked.

Notes

External links

Livius.org: Diaspora

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 04:15:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
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