Diaspora
Tracking Diaspora: Recent developments to the concept
Michelle Shalini Ramakrishnan(P49301)
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This essay attempts to examine the recent developments and evolvement to the concept of diaspora. The articles used in this essay to explore the above mentioned issue are Diaspora: Moving Beyond Minority Status by Mary Lou L. Alcid, The (Re)Turn of the Native: Diaspora, Transnationalism, and the Re-Inscription of ‘Home” by Prof Krishna Sen, Un/Settling Malaysia: Diaspora and National Desire by Sharmani Patricia Gabriel, Diaspora: A Look Back on a Concept by Lisa Anteby-Yemini & William Berthomiere and lastly, Rethinking the Concept of Diaspora: mobility, connectivity and communication in a globalised world by Roza Tsagarousianou.
2.0 DEFINITIONS OF DIASPORA
To understand this issue better, it is first important to explore the definition of diaspora. ‘Based on speiro (to sow) and the preposition dia (over), in the Ancient Greece, the word referred to migration and colonisation. In Hebrew, ‘the term initially referred to the setting of colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile and has assumed a more general connotation of people settled away from their ancestral homelands.’
According to Esman (1996), ‘a diaspora is a minority group of migrant origin which maintains sentimental or material links with its land of origin, either because of social exclusion, internal cohesion or other geo-political factors.’ Here, as commonly known, diasporas are said to preserve their sentimental link as they think of their homeland. What is more interesting is that Esman points out that they also maintain material links. This may, in my view, include the transporting of objects such as textile, lamps, traditional items and so on.
Safran (1991) defines the term diaspora as the ‘dispersal from a homeland, collective memory of homeland, lack of integration in the receiving country, a ‘myth’ of return, and a persistent link with the
Michelle Shalini Ramakrishnan(P49301)
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This essay attempts to examine the recent developments and evolvement to the concept of diaspora. The articles used in this essay to explore the above mentioned issue are Diaspora: Moving Beyond Minority Status by Mary Lou L. Alcid, The (Re)Turn of the Native: Diaspora, Transnationalism, and the Re-Inscription of ‘Home” by Prof Krishna Sen, Un/Settling Malaysia: Diaspora and National Desire by Sharmani Patricia Gabriel, Diaspora: A Look Back on a Concept by Lisa Anteby-Yemini & William Berthomiere and lastly, Rethinking the Concept of Diaspora: mobility, connectivity and communication in a globalised world by Roza Tsagarousianou.
2.0 DEFINITIONS OF DIASPORA
To understand this issue better, it is first important to explore the definition of diaspora. ‘Based on speiro (to sow) and the preposition dia (over), in the Ancient Greece, the word referred to migration and colonisation. In Hebrew, ‘the term initially referred to the setting of colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile and has assumed a more general connotation of people settled away from their ancestral homelands.’
According to Esman (1996), ‘a diaspora is a minority group of migrant origin which maintains sentimental or material links with its land of origin, either because of social exclusion, internal cohesion or other geo-political factors.’ Here, as commonly known, diasporas are said to preserve their sentimental link as they think of their homeland. What is more interesting is that Esman points out that they also maintain material links. This may, in my view, include the transporting of objects such as textile, lamps, traditional items and so on.
Safran (1991) defines the term diaspora as the ‘dispersal from a homeland, collective memory of homeland, lack of integration in the receiving country, a ‘myth’ of return, and a persistent link with the