Diaspora

The term diaspora, deriving from the Greek speir (“to sow,” “to scatter”), refers to a people dispersed by whatever cause to one or more foreign destinations who may never be fully assimilated in their host countries and may harbor thoughts of return. The term interprets, as well as the people who are dispersed, the land across which dispersal occurs. Along with related terms addressing complex flows of goods and people, diversity and multilocality, the category of diaspora can cause conceptual confusion between what are different experiences and practices as, for example, the diaspora caused by the compelling desire to move and that prompted by a voluntary migration. However, at its simplest diaspora points to the forms of hybrid consumer cultures that emerge as different ethnic ...