Diaspora(n.): the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland.
How is it that we find ethnically similar people in vastly different areas? Diaspora. Simply put, diaspora refers to people moving outwards from their home country into other nations. Diaspora can also refer to the people who have moved in this movement. This definition does a good job of literally describing what a diaspora is, but it fails to take into account the potential causes for a diaspora. Diasporas can be caused by a variety of reasons, from positive ones as trade and labor, to more negative reasons such as war, poverty, and colonialism. Take, for instance, the Chinese diaspora of the 19th century, where political corruption and wars created harsh living conditions that forced impoverished peasants to migrate to America, Australia, and other Asian countries where they could provide labor. However, diasporas are not inherently negative. Consider the Modern Indian Diaspora, where millions of Indians have been spread across the globe performing unskilled and skilled labor in one of the world’s largest labor migration movements. Failing to acknowledge why diasporas occur neglects a huge part of migrants’ history that accounts for much of the ethnic diversity we see today.
Diaspora(n.): the outward movement of people from an ethnic homeland caused by various socioeconomic and geopolitical reasons.
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