Comparing Diasporas: A Review Essay

Abstract

The diaspora phenomenon has caught the attention of a growing number of scholars. This is not surprising: in an age of globalization, which is marked by proliferating population movements, everfaster communication, and cultural exchanges across political boundaries, one becomes increasingly aware that the “nation-state” is an oddity; that the notion of the fixity of cultures is an illusion; and that the fashioning of homogeneous societies is unrealizable, if not undesirable. This development has given rise to numerous studies of ethnic, religious, and racial minorities. In the past several years, the term “diaspora” has come to be used more and more loosely as an inclusive term for these and other kinds of minorities who can trace their origins to a country or region other than that in which they reside. Gérard Chaliand and Jean-Pierre Rageau, two French scholars of nationalism and minorities, are among those who are not comfortable with that tendency. They point to the need to distinguish between diasporas and indigenous or immigrant minorities (xiii–xix).

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