			Home About us Contact

Diaspora Communities (diaspora + community)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

Distant warriors, distant peace workers?

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2008
Multiple diaspora roles in Sri Lanka's violent conflict
Abstract This article provides a critical, empirically based analysis of the multiple ways in which diaspora communities participate in transnational politics related to their war-affected former home countries. The case of Sri Lanka , and the Tamil and Sinhalese diasporas in the West , is used to illustrate how contemporary armed conflicts are increasingly waged in an international arena. Active diaspora groups have enabled an extension of nationalist mobilization, hostilities and polarization across the globe. Diaspora actors take part in propaganda work and fundraising in support of the belligerent parties in Sri Lanka, while the polarization between Sinhalese and Tamils is to a large extent replicated in the diaspora. However, there are also examples of diaspora groups that challenge war and militarism, for instance by calling for non-violent conflict resolution, condemning atrocities by both sides, and engaging in cross-ethnic dialogue. The article also argues that diaspora engagement in reconstruction of war-torn areas can be a double-edged sword, as it can reproduce , or reduce , grievances and inequalities that fuel the conflict. By discussing the many ways in which diasporas engage in homeland politics, the article challenges simplified understandings of diasporas as either,warriors'or,peace workers' in relation to their homeland conflicts. [source]

Mobilizing in transnational space: a social movement approach to the formation of diaspora

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 3 2006
MARTIN SÖKEFELD
Taking the imagination of a transnational community and a shared identity as defining characteristics of diaspora and drawing on constructivist concepts of identity, I argue that the formation of diaspora is not a,natural'consequence of migration but that specific processes of mobilization have to take place for a diaspora to emerge. I propose that concepts developed in social movement theory can be applied to the study of diaspora communities and suggest a comparative framework for the analysis of the formation of diaspora through mobilization. Empirical material to substantiate this approach is mainly drawn from the Alevi diaspora in Germany but also from South Asian diasporas. [source]

The Rise and Fall of Chinese Immigration to Canada: Newcomers from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China1 and Mainland China, 1980,20002

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2005
Peter S. Li
ABSTRACT An emerging perspective in the study of global diasporas stresses the effect of economic globalization and migration shifts in reshaping the population and identifying the formation of diaspora communities. This paper analyses the immigration patterns from Hong Kong and mainland China to Canada between the 1980s and 1990s, and shows that the migration shifts have been influenced by political and economic forces in Hong Kong and China, as well as changes in Canada's immigration policy. The imminent return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and its uncertain political future in the 1990s were often cited as the main reasons for Hong Kong's large emigration in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In reality, the rising volume of Hong Kong emigration was prompted by the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident in China and its aftermath, and by the booming economy of Hong Kong in the early 1990s that created the means for many middle-class Chinese to emigrate. At the same time, Canada's expansion of the Business Immigration Program in the mid-1980s also benefited immigrant entrepreneurs from Hong Kong. In contrast, the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 did not deter the economic growth of China. Immigration from China rose after 1989 when Canada allowed Chinese students studying in Canada to immigrate, but it was after the mid-1990s that immigration from China expanded due to Canada's greater emphasis on admitting economic immigrants and to China's growing middle class. The continuous arrival of well-educated and urban-based immigrants from China is likely to change the population composition and identity complexity of the Chinese community in Canada. LES HAUTS ET LES BAS DE L'IMMIGRATION CHINOISE AU CANADA : LES NOUVEAUX VENUS ORIGINAIRES DE LA RÉGION ADMINISTRATIVE SPÉCIALE DE HONG KONG1 ET DE LA CHINE CONTINENTALE, 1980,2000 Une perspective émergente dans l'étude des diasporas mondiales souligne l'effet de la mondialisation économique et des glissements migratoires dans le remodelage des populations et l'identification de la formation des communautés issues des diasporas. Cet ouvrage analyse les comportements migratoires en provenance de Hong Kong et de la Chine continentale en direction du Canada entre les années 80 et 90, et montre que les glissements migratoires ont été influencés par des forces politiques et économiques à l',uvre à Hong Kong et en Chine, ainsi que par des changements intervenus au niveau de la politique canadienne d'immigration. Le retour imminent de Hong Kong à la Chine en 1997 et son avenir politique incertain dans les années 90 ont souvent été cités comme les principales raisons pour l'importante émigration qui s'est produite au départ de Hong Kong à la fin des années 80 et au début des années 90. En réalité, l'ampleur croissante de l'émigration en provenance de Hong Kong a été suscitée par les événements de la place Tiananmen qui ont eu lieu en 1989 et par leurs retombées, ainsi que par l'essor économique de Hong Kong au début des années 90, ayant procuréà bon nombre de Chinois de la classe moyenne les moyens d'émigrer. Parallèlement, l'expansion du programme d'immigration commerciale mis en place par le Canada au milieu des années 80 a également profité aux entrepreneurs immigrants de Hong Kong. Par comparaison, la crise financière asiatique de 1997 n'a pas produit d'effet dissuasif sur la croissance économique de la Chine. L'immigration en provenance de Chine continentale a augmenté après 1989, lorsque le Canada a autorisé les étudiants chinois se trouvant sur son sol à immigrer légalement, mais ce n'est qu'après le milieu des années 90 que l'immigration en provenance de Chine s'est accélérée sous l'effet de la politique canadienne facilitant l'entrée au Canada des immigrants économiques et aussi de la progression de la classe moyenne en Chine. L'arrivée continue d'immigrants chinois instruits et originaires des villes est susceptible de modifier la composition de la population et la complexité identitaire de la communauté chinoise au Canada. EL AUMENTO Y CAÍDA DE LA INMIGRACIÓN CHINA AL CANADÁ: RECIÉN LLEGADOS DE LA REGIÓN ADMINISTRATIVA ESPECIAL DE HONG KONG1 Y DE CHINA, 1980,2000 En los estudios realizados sobre las diásporas en el mundo, se observa el efecto que tienen la globalización económica y los cambios migratorios en la reconfiguración de la población y en la conformación de comunidades de la diáspora. En este artículo se examinan los patrones de inmigración de Hong Kong y China al Canadá en los años ochenta y noventa, y se demuestra que los cambios en la migración resultan de fuerzas políticas y económicas en Hong Kong y China, así como de cambios en la política de inmigración del Canadá. La inminente devolución de Hong Kong a la China en 1997 y la incertidumbre sobre su futuro político, fueron consideradas como la principal razón de la numerosa inmigración de Hong Kong a finales de los años ochenta y principios de los noventa. En realidad, el creciente número de emigrantes de Hong Kong se debió al incidente en la Plaza de Tiananmen en China en 1989 y a sus consecuencias, y al auge económico de Hong Kong a principios de los años noventa, que permitió que la clase media china pudiera emigrar. Al mismo tiempo, la ampliación del Programa de Inmigración Empresarial instaurado por el Canadá a mediados de los años ochenta también atrajo a empresarios inmigrantes provenientes de Hong Kong. Por su parte, la crisis financiera asiática de 1997 no afectó el crecimiento económico en la China. La inmigración de China aumentó tras 1989, cuando el Canadá autorizó a la inmigración de los chinos que estudiaban en el Canadá, pero fue ulteriormente, a mediados de los años noventa, que la inmigración desde China se amplió debido a que el Canadá decidió aceptar a inmigrantes económicos y a la creciente clase media proveniente de China. La continua llegada de inmigrantes chinos instruidos y de zonas urbanas, probablemente afecte la composición y complejidad de la identidad de la población china en el Canadá. [source]

The New Nigerien Hausa Diaspora in the U.S.: surviving and building community on the margins of the global economy

CITY & SOCIETY, Issue 1 2004
SCOTT M. YOUNGSTEDT
This paper focuses on new Nigerien Hausa diaspora communities in U.S. cities. The economic and political policies of nation-states and international financial institutions exacerbate the abject poverty of Niger and impel Hausa to migrate to the U.S. where they work in the shadows of the formal economy or in the globalized informal economy. They rely on fluid, overlapping face-toface, imagined, and virtual communities to mitigate their marginalized position. Nigerien Hausa are creatively mediating and adapting global technologies of time-space compression,especially the Internet, telephones, and electronic money transfer services,to benefit and link their already established and newly emergent communities in diaspora. Based on multi-sited ethnographic evidence, this paper highlights the culturally specific ways that Nigerien Hausa navigate through global constraints and opportunities in their active efforts to survive and support their transnational families and communities, while maintaining dignity and solidarity. [source]