session #4 - diasporas and transnational diasporas Flashcards
the narrative of the nation-state vs migration
migration challenges the narrative of the nation-state
- receiving migrants: question who/if to accept
- leaving migrants: are they coming back? why are they leaving?
peak immigration (US)?
relatively speaking, in the past more immigration than now
diaspora to official population ratio
percentage of a population that lives outside of the state
(e.g. Armenia 183.2%)
Jewish diaspora 1st-2nd centuries AD
concept of diaspora stems from Greek translation of the Bible
experience of exile from the original land (of the Jewish people)
events: destruction of Jewish temples -> Jews start to move
people become dispersed around the whole world, whilst keeping a religion and other cultural aspects, that guarantee the maintenance of an identity
The Black Atlantic (1500-1900)
claim to be a form of diaspora, similar to the Jewish diaspora
- part of the same people, exist outside of the state as a community
Black Atlantic: slavery -> diaspora of Africans
everybody a diaspora?
a large set of peoples is claiming to be a diaspora
- Armenian
- Kurdish
- Croatian
- Greek
it is no longer about nation, it can also be a diaspora of football players, high school
it becomes a label of the experience of dispersion and maintenance of a specific form of identity
diaspora meanings
The process of dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland
A social group formed as a result of the dispersion from an original homeland that maintains ties across borders
*There are more definition, Ragazzi prefers this one: looks at 2 main interests (exclusion from homeland + common identity)
Diasporic triangle
- home state
- host state
- diasporic groups
these are the diasporic actors
diasporas as challengers of the nation-state
different approaches
diasporas as resources of the nation-state
different approaches
challenges:
1. shoveling out the paupers: Ireland
2. Populating the nation-state: the Zionist project
3. Emigration as danger: the Lybian example
resources:
- guest workers programs: Turkey and Mexico
- war and peace: diasporas and the war in Yugoslavia
- diasporas and global nation-states
shoveling out the paupers: ex. Ireland
- a liberal political economy & Malthusianism
- policies of desired emigration
- a territorial understanding of state policies
shoveling out the poor people
common in the 19th century
Irish diaspora in England/Britain
Irish were facing famine, dire economic posibilities -> left to America -> British let them leave: it’s good, in this way they got rid of the poor people
Malthusianism
the view that without moral restraint the population will increase at a greater rate than its means of subsistence
Malthus believed that the best way to manage a growing population was to get rid of it, because resources would run out at some point
this view of economic policy was once dominant
Populating the nation-state: ex. the Zionist project
welfare guaranteed by a growing population: more people is more for the common good
population as model for growth, bringing back diasporas to a state
- nationalist and socialist ideologies (socialist in the way of bringing people together etc.)
- policies of inwards migration
- the nation-state as the model
*opposite of the shoveling out the paupers approach
Jewish people: want a state where all Jews can migrate towards -> every Jew can easily get into Israel: everyone can and should come back
objective of Israel: disappearance of diaspora
operation Solomon 1991
operation to bring back Ethiopian Jews
36h non-stop flights bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel, as they were facing genocide in Ethiopia
emigration as danger: the Balkans example
- context of authoritarian states
- exporting the right to kill (kill opponents in other countries, this clashes with the idea that they have the right to kill on their own territory (so: this undermines the idea of politics strictly in territories))
- closed borders, travelling police
beginning of the cold war, but existed before
states are concerned with what (national) opponents are doing abroad (opponents in/as diasporas)
*Bulgarian umbrella: poison hidden in umbrella
guest workers programs
!relation diaspora and state are maintained
- the liberal Welfare state
- producing transportable labour force
- producing the ‘‘domestic abroad’’ (domestic attributes as health care, pension etc.)
after WW2 : welfare states
states with large unemployed population and lack of foreign currency
other states had a dire need of labor
workers weren’t shipped out, they had all sorts of attributes they would have at home, but they got it abroad
war and peace: diasporas and the war in Yugoslavia
- diasporas as lobbies
- diasporas as war makers
- diasporas as peace makers
Croatia and …. turned to their diasporas to fight in the war in Yugoslavia
diasporas and global nation-states
- structural factors of change
- a fusion of economic, cultural and political policies
- rebordering the state, rebordering the nation
new understanding that Indians in the Syllicon Valley have more economic value to the home country by staying there and sending remittances back home
started developing the idea that it is okay for people to stay abroad -> ‘‘home countries’’ can enjoy economic ties, political positions of their diasporas
States start celebrating diasporas
diasporas and the location of nations
nations aren’t where they are supposed to be:
global nation states
diasporas + nations are spread out, not within a particular state
main points
- the concept of diaspora emerges from the paradigmatic experience of the Jewish dispersion
- the concept extended and became a mobilizing concept to designate many other communities
- at the peak of territorialization of nation-states, diasporas were considered as a problem to solve
- ## after World War 2, they appeared as a temporary economic solution to developmental problemsafter the end of the cold war, some diasporas were incorporated in a globalized conception of the nation state
how do nation-states handle diasporas?
different ways of relating to migration is directly related to how states conceive the relation between
- sovereignty
- public relations
- economic growth
