Home  About us  Contact
 

Diasporic Communities (diasporic + community)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Contagion and its Guises: Inequalities and Disease among Tibetan Exiles in India

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2008
Audrey Prost
The paper outlines the trajectories of Tibetan refugees afflicted by tuberculosis (TB) within the exile community of Dharamsala (H-P). These stories reveal the political nature of TB status disclosure, highlighting the often conflicting ways in which the disease is perceived among different Tibetan exile regional and generational groups. On the basis of these case studies, I aim to show that differentiated experiences of treatment and stigma within "intermediary" host communities such as Dharamsala partially determine the ways in which Tibetans deal with the risk of TB in their "onward" journeys further afield, in Europe, Canada and the United States. With the now well-established connection between migration-related stresses and the onset or reappearance of TB symptoms, we may need to consider that, in some cases, it is the compounding of attitudes to disease in "intermediary" diasporic communities with the stigmatising label of "migrant menace" in the second stages of migration that impedes the care of migrants and even precipitates illness. With this premise the paper proposes that investigations of disease in diasporic communities should explore the totality of migration "stages" and their impact on health. [source]

Theorizing Diaspora: Perspectives on "Classical" and "Contemporary" Diaspora

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2004
Michele Reis
Cohen (1997) employed the term "classical" diaspora in reference to the Jews. Indeed, a vast corpus of work recognizes the Jewish people as examples of quintessential diasporic groups. However, a broader conceptualization of the term diaspora allows for the inclusion of immigrant communities that would be otherwise sidelined in the conventional literature on diaspora. This study is therefore a departure from the traditional diasporic literature, which tends to use the Jewish Diaspora as the archetype. It favours, rather, the classification of three principal broad historical waves in which the Jewish Diaspora can be interpreted as part of a classical period. The historicizing of diasporization for the purpose of this paper is achieved by an empirical discussion of the three major historical waves that influenced the diasporic process throughout the world: the Classical Period, the Modern Period, and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The paper discusses these three critical phases in the following manner: first, reference is made to the Classical Period, which is associated primarily with ancient diaspora and ancient Greece. The second historical phase analyses diaspora in relation to the Modern Period, which can be interpreted as a central historical fact of slavery and colonization. This section can be further subdivided into three large phases: (1) the expansion of European capital (1500,1814), (2) the Industrial Revolution (1815,1914), and (3) the Interwar Period (1914,1945). The final major period of diasporization can be considered a Contemporary or Late-modern phenomenon. It refers to the period immediately after World War II to the present day, specifying the case of the Hispanics in the United States as one key example. The paper outlines some aspects of the impact of the Latin American diaspora on the United States, from a socio-economic and politico-cultural point of view. While the Modern and Late-modern periods are undoubtedly the most critical for an understanding of diaspora in a modern, globalized context, for the purpose of this paper, more emphasis is placed on the latter period, which illustrates the progressive effect of globalization on the phenomenon of diasporization. The second period, the Modern Phase is not examined in this paper, as the focus is on a comparative analysis of the early Classical Period and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The incorporation of diaspora as a unit of analysis in the field of international relations has been largely neglected by both recent and critical scholarship on the subject matter. While a growing number of studies focus on the increasing phenomenon of diasporic communities, from the vantage of social sciences, the issue of diaspora appears to be inadequately addressed or ignored altogether. Certain key factors present themselves as limitations to the understanding of the concept, as well as its relevance to the field of international relations and the social sciences as a whole. This paper is meant to clarify some aspects of the definition of diaspora by critiquing the theories in the conventional literature, exposing the lacunae in terms of interpretation of diaspora and in the final analysis, establishing a historiography that may be useful in comparing certain features of "classical" diaspora and "contemporary" diaspora. The latter part of the paper is intended to provide illustrations of a contemporary diasporic community, using the example of Hispanics in the United States. [source]

ICT-mediated diaspora studies: New directions in immigrant information behavior research

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008
Ajit Pyati Organizer/Convener
A growing and sizeable area of study within information behavior research focuses on the information needs and behaviors of immigrant populations (see Chu, 1999; Fisher, Durrance & Hinton, 2004; Caidi & Allard 2005; Srinivasan & Pyati, 2007). Some of the unique needs of these populations include information to aid with coping skills and social inclusion, as well as culturally specific information resources. Moreover, immigrant communities have information networks that span national boundaries, which affects their needs and uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This panel will focus on the role of ICTs in mediating the information environments of immigrant and diasporic communities. While focusing on how ICTs mediate immigrant information needs, this panel also contextualizes immigrant information behavior research within globalization and diaspora studies. For instance, the concept of "e-diaspora" is a term gaining in popularity, but rarely invoked in relation to immigrant information behavior research. How do new media technologies mediate and influence the information needs and behaviors of immigrant populations? Are localized immigrant information needs mediated by diasporic information sources? The panelists will focus on ICT-mediated services for immigrant populations within the context of both local and global information environments. Questions addressed include: In what ways do diasporic information environments shape local immigrant information needs and their social inclusion into the host society? How does the "digital divide" manifest itself in studies of ICT-mediated immigrant information behavior? The issues addressed by the panel are both timely and critical as evidenced by the ongoing debates in Europe, North America and elsewhere on immigration policy, on integration and identity, and the role of ICTs in a globalized world. This international perspective will be reflected in the composition of the panel. [source]

"We Are Not Surviving, We Are Managing": the constitution of a Nigerian diaspora along the contours of the global economy

CITY & SOCIETY, Issue 1 2004
RACHEL R. REYNOLDSArticle first published online: 28 JUN 200
This ethnographic piece outlines how the geography of globalization and its socieconomic vicissitudes condition unique life experiences for Nigerian Igbo immigrants in the U.S. The elite class of Igbo people from Nigeria continue to immigrate to the U.S. in large numbers. As professionals, ethnic group members tend to settle in mainstream American neighborhoods, experiencing a high degree of structural integration into global professional workplaces and occupations. Ironically, the same physical and occupational mobility that disperses Igbo elites across the globe and across the U.S. also provides the enhanced means by which Igbo-speaking people sustain their ethnic organizations and diasporic communities. Professional work, normally in places which are assimilated to the American mainstream despite being extra,Igbo contexts, actually encourage habits of interactive communication that are brought into the service of Igbo community cohesion. In that sense, a geographical distribution that is primarily socio-economic is also parlayed into a means by which people come together through travel, through literacy, and through synchronous communication technologies. [source]

Theorizing Diaspora: Perspectives on "Classical" and "Contemporary" Diaspora

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 2 2004
Michele Reis
Cohen (1997) employed the term "classical" diaspora in reference to the Jews. Indeed, a vast corpus of work recognizes the Jewish people as examples of quintessential diasporic groups. However, a broader conceptualization of the term diaspora allows for the inclusion of immigrant communities that would be otherwise sidelined in the conventional literature on diaspora. This study is therefore a departure from the traditional diasporic literature, which tends to use the Jewish Diaspora as the archetype. It favours, rather, the classification of three principal broad historical waves in which the Jewish Diaspora can be interpreted as part of a classical period. The historicizing of diasporization for the purpose of this paper is achieved by an empirical discussion of the three major historical waves that influenced the diasporic process throughout the world: the Classical Period, the Modern Period, and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The paper discusses these three critical phases in the following manner: first, reference is made to the Classical Period, which is associated primarily with ancient diaspora and ancient Greece. The second historical phase analyses diaspora in relation to the Modern Period, which can be interpreted as a central historical fact of slavery and colonization. This section can be further subdivided into three large phases: (1) the expansion of European capital (1500,1814), (2) the Industrial Revolution (1815,1914), and (3) the Interwar Period (1914,1945). The final major period of diasporization can be considered a Contemporary or Late-modern phenomenon. It refers to the period immediately after World War II to the present day, specifying the case of the Hispanics in the United States as one key example. The paper outlines some aspects of the impact of the Latin American diaspora on the United States, from a socio-economic and politico-cultural point of view. While the Modern and Late-modern periods are undoubtedly the most critical for an understanding of diaspora in a modern, globalized context, for the purpose of this paper, more emphasis is placed on the latter period, which illustrates the progressive effect of globalization on the phenomenon of diasporization. The second period, the Modern Phase is not examined in this paper, as the focus is on a comparative analysis of the early Classical Period and the Contemporary or Late-modern Period. The incorporation of diaspora as a unit of analysis in the field of international relations has been largely neglected by both recent and critical scholarship on the subject matter. While a growing number of studies focus on the increasing phenomenon of diasporic communities, from the vantage of social sciences, the issue of diaspora appears to be inadequately addressed or ignored altogether. Certain key factors present themselves as limitations to the understanding of the concept, as well as its relevance to the field of international relations and the social sciences as a whole. This paper is meant to clarify some aspects of the definition of diaspora by critiquing the theories in the conventional literature, exposing the lacunae in terms of interpretation of diaspora and in the final analysis, establishing a historiography that may be useful in comparing certain features of "classical" diaspora and "contemporary" diaspora. The latter part of the paper is intended to provide illustrations of a contemporary diasporic community, using the example of Hispanics in the United States. [source]