Diaspora: Routes & Roots
Migration on a global scale has created diaspora communities across the world. Wherever they live in the world, the people of a diaspora all share a common 'home' which maybe far away from where they live.
From a geographical perspective, diaspora is about global flows of people and the connections that they make between places.
The term diaspora refers to a group of people who have dispersed across many geographical boundaries. Wherever they are in the world, and whatever cultural differences they have, the people living in diaspora communities all have a shared understanding that there is another place called ‘home’ that is far from where they live.
Although they will have dispersed from a common homeland, people who identify with a particular diaspora may have diasporic connections to other places around the globe. It is in this sense that we should think of a diaspora as a network. For example, members of the Punjabi diaspora may consider themselves to be part of a network that connects diaspora spaces found in cities such as Manchester, Toronto and Hong Kong, as well as 'home' in the Punjab. Diaspora can be the result of both forced and voluntary migrations. For example, the Chinese diaspora was voluntarily driven by trading, while the brutal transatlantic slave trade created a diaspora community that forced people from home. |
Diaspora is a challenge to international boundaries and borders because the people of the diaspora do not have identities that fit neatly into any one country. Home is a complicated matter for people who live within the intricate web of a diaspora community that stretches across the globe.
Diaspora spaces create a global network with transnational connections and flows. This connectivity enables diasporic cultures to flow between the places located across the diaspora network. For many geographers, diaspora is about routes as well as roots. A network of routes helps us to understand that diaspora create dynamic places that are constantly changing. Diasporic connections, that stretch across borders, have an energy and vitality that can generate new cultural forms that can disrupt 'mainstream' national cultures.
New cultures create new economies. One should not belittle our interest in new cultural landscapes - cultures generate money and this wealth has significant political implications. Music and clothing fashions are two examples of powerful industries that are inseparable from culture.
Diaspora spaces create a global network with transnational connections and flows. This connectivity enables diasporic cultures to flow between the places located across the diaspora network. For many geographers, diaspora is about routes as well as roots. A network of routes helps us to understand that diaspora create dynamic places that are constantly changing. Diasporic connections, that stretch across borders, have an energy and vitality that can generate new cultural forms that can disrupt 'mainstream' national cultures.
New cultures create new economies. One should not belittle our interest in new cultural landscapes - cultures generate money and this wealth has significant political implications. Music and clothing fashions are two examples of powerful industries that are inseparable from culture.
Diaspora MusicThe music of a diaspora community is described as being syncretic - an amalgam of musical traditions. As the music flows about the network of the diaspora community, it changes in response to local influences. In this way, music gets to be transformed within different geographical and national contexts. The music of the black Atlantic diaspora – blues, reggae, jazz, soul, rap – have all been produced through particular fusions of influences in different places in the Americas and beyond. Since diaspora is a network of connections, we need to be careful not to prescribe a fixed origin to diaspora music. For example, New Orleans jazz is different from other forms of jazz, such as Afro-Cuban. Although there are different cultural traditions within the network of the black Atlantic diaspora, they may all be deemed ‘African’. Finally, it is important to note that diaspora music can flow in both directions. For example, British black music is influencing contemporary African music. |
Diaspora FashionAs with music, diaspora networks have enabled the fusion of fashions to create new economies based on syncretic clothing fashions. Diasporic fashions are also shaping the wider fashion economy. For example, British-Asian fashion is influencing the ‘mainstream’ western fashion market.
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Diaspora spaces
The parts of cities that have been shaped by the activities of migrant communities, such as the ‘Chinatowns’ in many North American and European cities are obvious examples of ‘diaspora spaces’. Diaspora spaces may begin as places of safety and security in a world hostile to immigration. However, once the diaspora community has been established, such spaces can provide routes into the diaspora culture for the 'mainstream' population to experience and begin to understand diaspora cultures. Food cultures are a popular way to experience diaspora spaces. Many cities now promote these diaspora spaces as tourism attractions. For example, London’s Brick Lane has been branded as ‘Banglatown’ to tourists seeking to experience Bangladeshi cultures. Diaspora spaces have multiple connections with people who do not consider themselves to be part of the diaspora. In Britain, many people are influenced by ‘black Atlantic’ and south Asian cultures even if they are not a part of these diaspora. For example, in 2002, the film Bend it like Beckham entered mainstream cinema and provided an insight into the British Asian experience and life in the Punjabi diaspora community. In the film, differences between Asian and British cultures are explored using comedy.
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Conclusion
Global migrations have produced diaspora spaces. Diaspora are created when people disperse across geographical boundaries but remain connected to places that are imagined to be ‘home’. Diaspora communities do not fit tidily into formal geographical and national boundaries. Diasporic cultures can fuse with different cultures, creating new syncretic styles that may transform mainstream national cultures. |
Glossary
"Diaspora: the dispersal or scattering of people from their original home. As a noun it can be used to refer to a dispersed ‘people’ (hence the Jewish diaspora or the Black diaspora). However, it also refers to the actual processes of dispersal and connection that produce any scattered, but still in some way identifiable, population. In this light it also can be used as an adjective – diasporic – to refer to the senses of home, belonging and cultural identity held by a dispersed population."
"Syncretic: an adjective applied to a culture or cultural phenomenon that is composed of elements from different sources, and that combines them in such a way as to create something new and different from those sources."
"Diaspora: the dispersal or scattering of people from their original home. As a noun it can be used to refer to a dispersed ‘people’ (hence the Jewish diaspora or the Black diaspora). However, it also refers to the actual processes of dispersal and connection that produce any scattered, but still in some way identifiable, population. In this light it also can be used as an adjective – diasporic – to refer to the senses of home, belonging and cultural identity held by a dispersed population."
"Syncretic: an adjective applied to a culture or cultural phenomenon that is composed of elements from different sources, and that combines them in such a way as to create something new and different from those sources."
Source: Cloke, Paul; Crang, Philip; Goodwin, Mark. Introducing Human Geographies. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
Acknowledgement: this essay is based on research by Claire Dwyer, formally Professor of Human Geography at UCL.