Evaluating `Diaspora': Beyond Ethnicity?

Abstract

This paper evaluates the use of the concept of 'diaspora' as an alternative way of thinking about transnational migration and ethnic relations to those ways that rely on 'race' and 'ethnicity'. It examines the heuristic potential of the concept, as a descriptive typological tool and as a social condition and societal process. Both approaches are described and key elements within each are assessed. It is argued that although very different in emphasis, and though containing different strengths and weaknesses, both approaches are problematised by their reliance on a notion of deterritorialised ethnicity which references the primordial bonds of 'homeland'. It is also argued that both approaches are unable to attend fully to 'intersectionality', that is to issues of class, gender and transethnic alliances. It is concluded that although potentially enabling a broader sweep of questions that can relate to the transnational aspects of population movements and settlement, the concept of 'diaspora', as it has been articulated so far, does not overcome fully some of the problems identified with the 'ethnicity' problematic. Key words: class, concepts, culture, diaspora, ethnicity, gender, intersections, transnational migration. © COPYRIGHT 1998 British Sociological Association Publication Ltd. (UK)Recent debates on the configuration of ethnic and 'race' boundaries in an era of global transformations, have re-focused academic attention on the concept of 'diaspora'. 'Diaspora' denotes transnational movement and ties in with arguments around globalisation and the growth of non-nation based solidarities (Robertson 1992, Appadurai 1990 in the contemporary period. Debates on globalisation have identified the economic and political dismantling of national borders, as well as the growth of transnational cultural formations (Featherstone 1990, Robertson 1995. New notions of diaspora identities and experiences (in, for example, Hall 1990, Gilroy 1993, Bhabha 1990, Cohen 1993, Clifford 1994, Brah 1996 have emerged. This also follows a wider tendency to insert and promote a less essentialised and more historically and analytically informed vocabulary into the traditional concerns of 'race and ethnic relations', which have dominated the field (see, for example, Miles 1989, Anthias 1990, Anthias and Yuval Davis 1992, Hall 1990, Gilroy 1993, Mason 1994, Brah 1996. Claims have been made for the concept of 'diaspora' that require casting a critical eye over it. The term now constitutes kind of mantra, being used to describe the processes of settlement and adaptation relating to a large range of transnational migration movements (see for, example,

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"The place I long to be": Resilience processes in migrants

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The Guide to Comfort: <i>The diasporic practices of Swedish clubs in Southern Spain</i>

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