Ethnic Diasporas and U.S. Foreign Policy

Abstract

The polity is unique in its insistence on political rather than ethnic criteria for inclusion and loyalty. patriotism is defined as the devotion to liberal-democratic and humane principles and not to an ethnically-based, cultural community. In fact, ethnic pluralism in the United States is by now part of the creed of Celebrated Diversity, to use Lawrence Fuchs's phrase. While at the turn of the twentieth century many citizens regarded the hyphenated American with contempt and distrust, now hyphenation is prized. The U.S. lack of emphasis on the organic community and the growing legitimation of ethnicity in public life allow members of ethnic groups to identify with their county of origin. Indeed, many U.S. diasporas mainly migrants and their descendants who are linked by ties of origin, ethnic association, or nationalityfeel a sense of kinship with the land of their ancestors and share an abiding interest in the politics of their ancestral country or symbolic homeland. Political actors abroad have increasingly appreciated and even encouraged the political activity of their compatriots on their behalf. The ties to the homeland are also reinforced by modern transportation and communication. The growing number of Americans who keep close contact

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