Di⋅as⋅po⋅ra

   daɪˈæs pər əShow Spelled Pronunciation [dahy-as-per-uh]

Show IPA
–noun
1. the scattering of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian
captivity.
2. (often lowercase ) the body of Jews living in countries outside Palestine or
modern Israel.
3. such countries collectively: the return of the Jews from the Diaspora.
4. (lowercase ) any group migration or flight from a country or region; dispersion.
5. (lowercase ) any group that has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland.
6. (lowercase ) any religious group living as a minority among people of the
prevailing religion.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diaspora

Diaspora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Not to be confused with diaspore (botany) or diaspore (mineral).
For other uses, see Diaspora (disambiguation).
Look up diaspora in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The term diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering [of seeds]") refers to the
movement of any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to
leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far
remote from the former. It is converse to the nomadic culture, and more appropriately
linked with the creation of a group of refugees. However, while refugees may or may not
ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently
displaced and relocated collective.

Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from that of the
population in the original place of settlement. It tends to vary in culture, traditions and
other factors between remotely separated communities. The last vestiges of cultural
affiliation in a diaspora is often found in community resistance to language change and in
maintenance of traditional religious practice.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Origins and development

• 2 Native American diaspora
 • 3 European diasporas
• 4 African diaspora
• 5 Asian diaspora
• 6 The 20th century and beyond
o 6.1 WWII and the end of colonial rule
o 6.2 The Cold War and the formation of post-colonial states
o 6.3 Migration diasporas: A subject of debate
• 7 In popular culture
• 8 See also
• 9 Citations and notes
• 10 References

• 11 External links

[edit] Origins and development

The first mention of a diaspora created as a result of exile is found in Deuteronomy 28:25
"thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth". Its use began to develop from
this original sense when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek[1]; the word
diaspora then was used to refer to the population of Jews exiled from Israel in 607 BCE
by the Babylonians, and from Judea in 70 CE by the Roman Empire.[2] It subsequently
came to be used to refer interchangeably, but exclusively, to the historical movements of
the dispersed ethnic population of Israel, the cultural development of that population, or
the population itself.[3] To date, when capitalized and without modifiers (that is, simply
the Diaspora), the term generally refers specifically to the Jewish diaspora[citation needed].

The wider application of diaspora evolved from the Assyrian two-way mass deportation
policy of conquered populations to deny future territorial claims on their part.[4] In
Ancient Greece the term diaspora meant "the scattered" and was used to refer to citizens
of a dominant city-state who emigrated to a conquered land with the purpose of
colonisation, to assimilate the territory into the empire.[5]

The first modern attestation of diaspora is in 1876 from the Greek diaspora, derived
from diaspeirein "to scatter about, disperse," from dia- "about, across" + speirein "to
scatter".[6]

Sometimes refugees of other origins or ethnicities may be called a diaspora, but the two
terms are far from synonymous.[7][8]

The term became more widely assimilated into English by the mid 1950s, with long-term
expatriates in significant numbers from other particular countries or regions also being
referred to as a diaspora.[9][8][10][11] An academic field, diaspora studies, has become
established relating to this contemporary, more general sense of the word.

In all cases, the term diaspora carries a sense of displacement; that is, the population so
described finds itself for whatever reason separated from its national territory; and
usually its people have a hope, or at least a desire, to return to their homeland at some
point, if the "homeland" still exists in any meaningful sense. Some writers have noted
that diaspora may result in a loss of nostalgia for a single home as people "re-root" in a
series of meaningful displacements. In this sense, individuals may have multiple homes
throughout their diaspora, with different reasons for maintaining some form of
attachment to each.

[edit] Native American diaspora

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to
guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (June 2009)

New World history records many diaspora-like events or mass migratory patterns
(nomadism) wherein major populations of the indigenous peoples in the Americas were
either dispersed or transported. These dynamics continue. Virtually every Native
American tribe, community and confederation in North, South and Central America has
this experience as part of their family stories. Colonialists divided indigenous
communities intentionally; however, strong Native American blood lines remain visible.
These document-based methods of proving Native American blood lines largely preclude
all but reservation families. However, a large number of Native American peoples were
nomadic, and so, do not fit the meaning of the diaspora.

[edit] European diasporas

Further information: European diasporas

Greek Diaspora 6th c. BC

European history contains numerous diaspora-like events. In ancient times, the trading
and colonising activities of the Greek tribes from the Balkans and Asia Minor spread
people of Greek culture, religion and language around the Mediterranean and Black Sea
basins, establishing Greek city states in Sicily, southern Italy, northern Libya, eastern
Spain, the south of France, and the Black sea coasts. Greeks founded more than 400
colonies.[12] Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire marked the
beginning of the Hellenistic period, which was characterized by a new wave of Greek
colonization in Asia and Africa, with Greek ruling classes established in Egypt,
southwest Asia and northwest India.[13]

The Migration Period relocations, which included several phases, are just one set of many
in history. The first phase Migration Period displacement from between AD 300 and 500
included relocation of the Goths (Ostrogoths and Visigoths), Vandals, Franks, various
other Germanic people (Burgundians, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi,
Alemanni, Varangians and Normans), Alans and numerous Slavic tribes. The second
phase, between AD 500 and 900, saw Slavic, Turkic, and other tribes on the move,
resettling in Eastern Europe and gradually making it predominantly Slavic, and affecting
Anatolia and the Caucasus as the first Turkic tribes (Avars, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars,
Pechenegs and possibly Magyars) arrived. The last phase of the migrations saw the
coming of the Hungarian Magyars and the Viking expansion out of Scandinavia into
Europe and the British Isles, as well as Greenland and Iceland.

Such colonizing migrations cannot be considered indefinitely as diasporas; over very

long periods, eventually the migrants assimilate into the settled area so completely that it
becomes their new homeland. Thus the modern population of Hungary do not feel that
they belong in the Western Siberia that the Hungarian Magyars left 12 centuries ago; and
the English descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes do not yearn to reoccupy the
plains of Northwest Germany.

In 1492, a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas,

after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded. In the 16th century
perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports.[14] Immigration continued to North
and South America. In the 19th century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the
Americas.[15]

A specific 19th century example was the Irish diaspora, beginning mid-19th century and
brought about by a combination of harsh imperial British policies and the An Gorta Mór
or "Great Hunger" of the Irish Famine. Estimates are that between 45% and 85% of
Ireland's population emigrated, to countries including Britain, the United States, Canada,
Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. The size of the diaspora is demonstrated by the
number of people around the world who claim Irish ancestry; some sources put the figure
at 80-100 million.

[edit] African diaspora

One of the largest diasporas of pre-modern times was the African Diaspora, which began
at the beginning of the 16th century. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, twenty million
people from West, West-Central and South-east Africa were transported to the Western
Hemisphere as slaves. This population and their descendants were major influences on
the culture of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish New World colonies.

The Arab slave trade also transported large numbers of Africans from the continent,
although the effect of the Diaspora to the east is more subtle. It has not received as much
historical study in the West, but affected millions of Africans.[16]

[edit] Asian diaspora

Chinese emigration (also known as the Chinese Diaspora) first occurred thousands of
years ago. The mass emigration that occurred from the 19th century to 1949 was caused
mainly by wars and starvation in mainland China, as well as political corruption. Most
immigrants were illiterate or poorly educated peasants and coolies (Chinese: 苦力,
translated: Hard Labor), who immigrated to developing countries in need of labor, such
as the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Malaya and other places.
The largest Asian diaspora outside of Southeast Asia is that of the Indian diaspora. The
overseas Indian community estimated at over 25 million is spread across many regions in
the world, on every continent. It constitutes a diverse, heterogeneous and eclectic global
community representing different regions, languages, cultures, and faiths. The common
thread that binds them together is the idea of India and its intrinsic values (see Desi).[citation
needed]

The Romani are widely dispersed with their largest concentrated populations in Europe.
Linguistic and genetic evidence indicates the Romanies originated from the Indian
subcontinent, emigrating from India towards the northwest no earlier than the 11th
century.[17]

At least three waves of Nepalese diaspora can be identified. The earliest wave dates back
to hundreds of years as early marriage and high birthrates propelled Hindu settlement
eastward across Nepal, then into Sikkim and Bhutan. A backlash developed in the 1980s
as Bhutan's political elites realized that Bhutanese Buddhists were at risk of becoming a
minority in their own country. At present, the United States is working towards resettling
more than 60,000 ethnic Nepalese from Bhutan in the US as a third country settlement
programme.[18]

A second wave was driven by British recruitment of mercenary soldiers beginning around
1815 and resettlement after retirement in the British Isles and southeast Asia. The third
wave began in the 1970s as land shortages intensified and the pool of educated labor
greatly exceeded job openings in Nepal. Job-related emigration created Nepalese
enclaves in India, the wealthier countries of the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Current estimates of the number of Nepalese living outside Nepal range well up into the
millions.

[edit] The 20th century and beyond

It has been suggested that Jamaican diaspora be merged into this article or section.
(Discuss)

The twentieth century saw huge population movements. Some involved large-scale
transfers of people by government action. For instance, Stalin shipped millions of people
to Eastern Russia, Central Asia, and Siberia both as punishment and to stimulate
development of the frontier regions. Some migrations occurred to avoid conflict and
warfare. Other diasporas were created as a consequence of political decisions, such as the
end of colonialism.

[edit] WWII and the end of colonial rule

As WWII unfolded, Nazi Germany deported and killed millions of Jews. Some Jews fled
from persecution to western Europe and the Americas before borders closed. Later other
eastern European refugees moved west, away from Soviet annexation,[19] and the Iron
Curtain regimes after World War II.
After WWII, the Soviet Union and Communist-controlled Poland, Hungary and
Yugoslavia expelled hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, who had lived in eastern
countries for nearly two centuries, in retaliation for Nazi invasion and attempts at
annexation. Most moved west, with tens of thousands seeking refuge in the United States.

Galicia in northern Spain sent many emigrants into exile during Franco's military regime
from 1936 to his death in 1975.

Following WWII, the creation of the state of Israel, and a series of uprisings against
colonialist rule, the Middle East was almost entirely emptied of its historic Jewish
populations of nearly 1 million. The majority found refuge in Israel and became known as
Mizrahi Jews. At the same time, the Palestinian diaspora was created as a result of the
establishment of Israel in 1948, in which 750,000 people were displaced. It was enlarged
by the effects of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; today the Palestinian refugee population is
the oldest in the world.

The 1947 Partition resulted in the migration of millions of people between India and
Pakistan. Many were murdered in the unrest of the period, with estimates of fatalities up
to 10 million people. Thousands of former subjects of the British Raj went to the UK
from the Indian subcontinent after India and Pakistan became independent in 1947.

From the late nineteenth century Korea, and formally from 1910, became a Japanese
colony. Millions of Chinese fled to western provinces not occupied by Japan (i.e., in
particular Ssuchuan/Szechwan and Yunnan in the Southwest and Shensi and Kansu in the
Northwest) and to Southeast Asia. More than 100,000 Koreans moved across the Amur
River into Eastern Russia (then the Soviet Union) away from the Japanese.[citation needed]
During the Japanese war with China (1937-1945), Japan established Manchuria as a
multi-ethnic puppet state, Manchukuo.

[edit] The Cold War and the formation of post-colonial states

During and after the Cold War-era, huge populations of refugees migrated from conflict,
especially from then-developing countries.

Upheaval in the Middle East and Central Asia, much of which related to power struggles
between the United States and the Soviet Union, created a host of new refugee
populations which developed into global diasporas. The Afghan diaspora resulted from
the 1979 invasion by the former Soviet Union; both official and unofficial records[citation
needed]
indicate that the war displaced over 6 million people, resulting in the creation of the
largest refugee population worldwide today. Many Iranians fled the 1979 Iranian
Revolution following the fall of the Shah.

The Assyrian diaspora expanded as the Civil War in Lebanon, the coming into power of
the Islamic republic of Iran, the Ba'athist dictatorship in Iraq, and the present-day unrest
in Iraq pushed even more Assyrians on the roads of exile.[20] Tens of thousands of Iraqis
have fled conflict in their nation since the beginning of the American occupation of Iraq
in 2003.

In Southeast Asia, many Vietnamese people emigrated to France and later millions to the
United States, Australia and Canada after the Cold War-related Vietnam War. Later,
30,000 French colons from Cambodia were displaced after being expelled by the Khmer
Rouge regime under Pol Pot.[citation needed] The mass exodus of Vietnamese people from
Vietnam coined the term 'Boat people'.

In Africa, a new series of diasporas formed following the end of colonial rule. Uganda
expelled 80,000 South Asians in 1972. Hundreds of thousands of people fled from the
Rwandan Genocide in 1994 into neighboring countries. Thousands of refugees from
deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe have gone to South Africa. The long war in Congo
has also created massive numbers of refugees.

In South America, thousands of Chilean and Uruguayan refugees fled to Europe during
periods of military rule in the 1970s and '80s. A million Colombian refugees have left
Colombia since 1965 to escape the country's violence and civil wars. In Central America,
Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Costa Ricans and Panamanians fled
conflict and poor economic conditions.

[edit] Migration diasporas: A subject of debate

Some scholars argue that when economic migrants gather in such numbers outside their
home region, they form an effective Diaspora:[citation needed] for instance, the Turkish
Gastarbeiter in Germany; South Asians in the Persian Gulf; Filipinos worldwide; and
Chinese workers in Japan.

Hispanics or Latinos in the USA are sometimes referred to as a newly developed

"diaspora" or dispersions of immigrant peoples from Latin America into the United
States, and ethnic groups continued their cultural distinction, such as Mexican-
Americans, Puerto Rican people, Cuban-Americans, etc.

Since the 1970s, Mexican immigrants to the United States have been chiefly economic
refugees coming for work; many have crossed the border illegally or remained
undocumented aliens who never acquired legal residency or US citizenship.

Earlier mass movements of rural migration in the U.S. occurred: The two waves of the
Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest and Western
states comprised a diaspora and resulted in urbanization of more than 6.5 million African
Americans from 1910-1970. Many were recruited by northern businesses eager for labor
for their developing industries, but the people were also "voting with their feet" to leave
behind segregation, lynchings, disfranchisement and limited chances in the southern rural
economy.
Historians identify as another diaspora the mass migration of people during the Dust
Bowl years: the "Okies" from the drought-ridden American Great Plains and "Arkies"
from the Ozarks of the American South in the 1930s; the majority of both groups went
west to California.[citation needed]

More recently, some observers have labeled evacuation from New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina a diaspora,[who?] since a significant number of
evacuees have not been able to return, yet maintain aspirations to do so. Other scholars
maintain that inclusion of such migrations under the heading of "diaspora" has caused a
blurring of terms.[citation needed]

The International Organization for Migration said there are more than 200 million
migrants around the world today. Europe hosted the largest number of immigrants, with
70.6 million people in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. North
America, with over 45.1 million immigrants, is second, followed by Asia, which hosts
nearly 25.3 million. Most of today's migrant workers come from Asia.[21]

[edit] In popular culture

Futuristic science fiction sometimes refers to a diaspora, taking place when much of
humanity leaves Earth to settle on far-flung "colony worlds.

İsmet Özel wrote a poem titled "Of not being a Jew" in which he lamented the fact that he
felt like a pursued Jew, but had no second country to which he could go. He writes:

Your load is heavy

He's very heavy
Just because he's your brother
Your brothers are your pogroms
When you reach the doorsteps of your friends
Starts your Diaspora

In The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, the
Division of the Crimson Guard is known as the Diaspora. After the war between the
Malazan Empire and the Guard ends in stalemate after a protracted duel between Skinner
(of the Guards) and Dassem (first sword of the Empire) ends in a draw, the Guards' leader
Kazz D'Avore disappears and the Guards split into companies to search for him. This
search is also known as the Diaspora of the Malazans.

The song "Prayer Of The Refugee" by Rise Against, was originally called Diaspora, and
was featured on Guitar Hero with said name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora
 1. The dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the sixth century B.C., when they
were exiled to Babylonia, until the present time.
2. often diaspora The body of Jews or Jewish communities outside Palestine or
modern Israel.
3. diaspora
a. A dispersion of a people from their original homeland.
b. The community formed by such a people: “the glutinous dish known
throughout the [West African] diaspora as … fufu” (Jonell Nash).
4. diaspora A dispersion of an originally homogeneous entity, such as a language or
culture: “the diaspora of English into several mutually incomprehensible
languages” (Randolph Quirk).

[Greek diasporā, dispersion, from diaspeirein, to spread about : dia-, apart; see dia– +
speirein, to sow, scatter.]

diasporic diasporic or diasporal adj.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Diaspora
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The dispersion of Jews among the Gentiles after the Babylonian Exile (586 BC), or the
aggregate of Jews outside Palestine or present-day Israel. The term also carries religious,
philosophical, political, and eschatological connotations, inasmuch as the Jews perceive a
special relationship between the land of Israel and themselves. Interpretations of this
relationship range from the messianic hope of traditional Judaism for the eventual
"ingathering of the exiles" to the view of Reform Judaism that the dispersal of the Jews
was providentially arranged by God to foster monotheism throughout the world.
Historically, Diaspora Jews outnumbered the Jews in Palestine even before the
destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Thereafter, the chief centres of Judaism shifted from
country to country (e.g., Babylonia, Persia, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, and
the U.S.), and Jewish communities gradually adopted distinctive languages, rituals, and
cultures, some submerging themselves in non-Jewish environments more completely than
others. While some lived in peace, others became victims of violent anti-Semitism. While
the vast majority of Orthodox Jews have supported Zionism, some Orthodox Jews go so
far as to oppose the modern State of Israel on the grounds that it is a godless and secular
state defying God's will to send his messiah at the time he has preordained.

For more information on Diaspora, visit Britannica.com.

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Bible Guide: Dispersion (Diaspora)
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The term "Dispersion" is a translation of the Greek word "Diaspora," referring to the
scattering and resettlement of Jews outside of the land of Israel. The earliest references to
the idea of a dispersion are found in Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:27; 28:64-68;
Psalms 44:11; 106:27; Jeremiah 9:16; 13:24; and Ezekiel 12:13-16. Israel's unfaithfulness
and disobedience to God's covenant were punishable by ruin and exile.

The history of the Diaspora can be dated from the Assyrian Exile (722 B.C.) when the ten
tribes, deported to Assyria from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, were eventually
assimilated; or from the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.) when a large part of the population
of Judah was sent to Babylonia where many remained even after being permitted to
return by Cyrus the Great (539 B.C.). At the same time, a Jewish community began to
develop in Egypt (Jer 44:1). The Diaspora grew extensively during the Second Temple
era and by NT times extended from Cyrene to Rome (cf Acts 2:9-11). The travels of St.
Paul and his visits to Jewish communities in various countries provide graphic evidence
of the extent of the Diaspora in his time.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Diaspora
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Diaspora (dīăs'pərə) [Gr.,=dispersion], term used today to denote the Jewish communities
living outside the Holy Land. It was originally used to designate the dispersal of the Jews
at the time of the destruction of the first Temple (586 B.C.) and the forced exile
[Heb.,=Galut] to Babylonia (see Babylonian captivity). The diaspora became a permanent
feature of Jewish life; by A.D. 70 Jewish communities existed in Babylonia, Syria, Egypt,
Cyrene, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. Jews followed the Romans into Europe and from
Persia and Babylonia spread as far east as China. In modern times, Jews have migrated to
the Americas, South Africa, and Australia. The Jewish population of Central and Eastern
Europe, until World War II the largest in the world, was decimated in the Holocaust.
Despite the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the vast majority of the Jewish people
remains in the diaspora, notably in North America, Russia, and Ukraine. The term
diaspora has also been applied to other peoples with large numbers living outside their
traditional homelands. See Jews; Judaism.
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Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Diaspora
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The dispersal of ethnonational groups.

The term diaspora is derived from the Greek verb speiro (to sow) and the Greek
preposition dia (over). All diasporas have in common significant characteristics: They
result from both voluntary and imposed migration; their members wish to and are able to
maintain their ethnonational identity, which is the basis for continued solidarity; core
members establish in their host countries intricate organizations that are intended to
protect the rights of their members and to encourage participation in the cultural,
political, social, and economic spheres; and members maintain continuous contacts with
their homelands and other dispersed segments of the same nation.

Ethnonational diasporism is a widespread perennial phenomenon not confined to the

Jews, although in many contexts the term is presumed to refer specifically to the Jewish
diaspora. Some ethnonational diasporas are dwindling or disappearing, but other
historical, modern, and incipient diasporas are multiplying and flourishing all over the
world, including in the Middle East.

Middle Easterners of various ethnic backgrounds permanently reside in foreign host

countries within or outside the region; simultaneuosly, Middle Eastern states host
diasporas. The larger diaspora communities in the Middle East include Palestinians,
Egyptians, Yemenis, and guest workers from elsewhere (Chinese, Pakistanis, Koreans,
Vietnamese, and Filipinos) who reside in the Gulf states and in Saudi Arabia; Armenians,
Druze, and guest workers from Romania, Turkey, the former Soviet Union, Thailand, the
Philippines, and African countries residing in Israel; Palestinians, Druze, and Armenians
in Lebanon; Palestinians, Druze, and Armenians in Syria; and Sudanese, Palestinians, and
a small number of Greeks in Egypt. Some of these diapsoras, such as the Armenians,
come from established states, while others, such as the Kurds, Druze, Gypsies, and the
Palestinians, are stateless.

Age, dispersal in and outside the region, group size, status, organization, and connection
(or lack thereof) to their homelands influence each of these diasporas' positions in and
strategies toward host countries an d homelands. Because of globalization and growth in
worldwide migration, their economic and political roles have become increasingly
significant.

Bibliography

Maʾoz, Moshe, and Sheffer, Gabriel, eds. Middle EasternMinorities and Diasporas.
Brighton, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 2002.
 — GABRIEL SHEFFER

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Food & Culture Encyclopedia: Diaspora
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The term "diaspora" was first used to describe the shared experience of the Jewish
peoples—experience of exile and displacement, but also of continuing (some would say
strengthening) connection and identification. Etymologically, "diaspora" derives from
Greek dia ('through') and speirein ('to sow, scatter'). The word is used more broadly to
refer to the cultural connections maintained by a group of people who have been
dispersed or who have migrated around the globe. Each distinct "diasporic group" or
"community" is a composite of many journeys to different parts of the world, occurring
over very different timescales. The experiences of particular subgroups can therefore vary
considerably—to the extent that some writers argue it is meaningless to talk of shared
identities and experiences of, for example, "the South Asian diaspora," at the global level.
Avtar Brah's book Cartographies of Diaspora provides a detailed discussion of the
complex history and uses of the concept.

A key characteristic of diasporas is that a strong sense of connection to a homeland is

maintained through cultural practices and ways of life. As Brah reminds us, this
"homeland" might be imaginary rather than real, and its existence need not be tied to any
desire to "return" home. The maintenance of these kinds of cultural connections can in
some cases provoke both nostalgic and separatist tendencies. The focus here is on the
place of cooking and eating among the enduring habits, rituals, and everyday practices
that are collectively used to sustain a shared sense of diasporic cultural identity, in
recognition that culinary culture has an important part to play in diasporic identifications.

Diasporic Foodscapes

Among the everyday cultural practices routinely used to maintain (and in some cases
enhance or even reinvent) diasporic identities, food is commonly of central importance.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, food traditions and habits are comparatively
portable: groups that migrate around the world often carry with them elements of the diet
and eating habits of the "homeland." Indeed, the migrations of foods can be used to track
the past movements of people, a cornerstone of research into foodways and foodscapes.
Every nation's diet therefore bears the imprint of countless past immigrations. Second,
foodways are adaptable: While migrations can map the movements of ingredients,
foodstuffs, or methods of preparation into new habitats unchanged, they also tell tales of
adaptation, substitution, and indigenization. As people and their cuisines move, they also
change to suit local conditions. Ghassan Hage's research with Lebanese migrants in
Australia provides a simple illustration. In his essay "At Home in the Entrails of the
West," based on interviews with Lebanese migrants to the Parramatta area of Sydney,
Hage reports on this process of adaptation and substitution. One of his respondents talks
about using peanut butter in Lebanese dishes in place of tahini, which was not at the time
available in Australia. (In fact, when tahini later became available, the respondent admits
to craving peanut butter.) Over time, this reshaping of ingredients and cooking methods
often leads to a reshaping of diasporic culinary cultures, such that the dishes sometimes
bear little resemblance to the original version. Comparing the same dishes among
diasporic groups in different countries (say, the Chinese in the United States and in the
United Kingdom) makes this clear, as does comparing diasporic versions of dishes with
those served "back home."

This mobility and adaptability assures that food habits are usually maintained (even while
they are transformed) among diasporic groups. Occasionally entire culinary cultures may
be preserved. More often, "traditional" foods are maintained only in particular symbolic
meals or dishes. For example, the small community of Russian Molokans in the United
States perpetuates the rituals of preparing and sharing formal community dinners, or
obedy (as reported by Willard B. Moore in "Metaphor and Changing Reality").
Alternatively, a particular dish can be singled out as embodying and preserving diasporic
identity, as in the case of the ghormeh-sabzi, a stew eaten by Iranian immigrants in
central England. This dish has particular significance as a way to reconnect with Iranian
culture, tradition, and beliefs. A detailed discussion of the place of ghormeh-sabzi can be
found in Lynn Harbottle's essay, "'Bastard' Chicken or Ghormeh-sabzi?" Harbottle's
respondents report that they had to make compromises in their families' diets, allowing
some Western dishes onto the table, even though they were generally wary of losing their
cultural identity through Westernization. However, they expressed health concerns about
the inferiority of the food in England compared with their diet back in Iran, and were
keen to maintain the cultural and religious significance of food habits and pass them on to
future generations. (These habits were mainly connected with their Shi'ite faith and the
consumption of halal ingredients in accordance with Islamic dietary law.) In some cases,
this led to the transformation of some staples of contemporary English cuisine, such as
pizza or burgers, to realign them with Shi'ite custom. The diasporic transformation of diet
is, therefore, a two-way process.

In fact, the arrival of diasporic foodways can more broadly transform the "host culture"
into which migrants move. In Britain, for example, the migration of South Asian peoples
has brought with it a variety of "immigrant" cuisines. While these were maintained
initially for the migrant communities as a reminder of "home," their popularity among
non-Asian Britons is longstanding and has continued to grow. Certain indigenized dishes,
such as chicken tikka massala, are among the most enthusiastically and widely eaten
meals in Britain today. (This, of course, need not signal comfortable race relations away
from the table; see Uma Narayan's essay on Indian food in the West, "Eating Cultures.")

Diasporic Dilemmas
It would be wrong to simply equate the popularity of chicken tikka massala in Britain
with the comfortable accommodation of South Asian migrants into a commonly shared
and widely adopted multicultural identity. This is one of Hage's main points: the adoption
of diasporic cuisines by host cultures often does little to encourage other forms of
productive encounter between different ethnic groups. In fact, for Hage, the availability
of diasporic foodstuffs permits a lazy "cosmo-multiculturalism," in which eating foreign
dishes substitutes for other forms of engagement. Moreover, the necessity of maintaining
"exotic" foodways can produce a distinct diasporic burden, fixing migrant culinary
cultures rather than allowing them to change. There is, therefore, a set of ethical questions
attached to the existence of diasporic foodscapes: For whom are they produced? What are
their outcomes and effects? What alternatives might be suggested?

Two discussions can serve as illustrations of this dilemma. The first focuses on the role of
the döner kebap among Turkish "economic migrants" in Germany. In his essay
"McDöner," Ayse Caglar traces the ways in which the symbolic meaning of the döner has
shifted over time. He notes its immense popularity in Germany, and reminds us that the
dish was invented for non-Turkish Germans and does not exist in Turkey in the form it is
now served—as a fast food consisting of meat slices in pide (Turkish flatbread),
garnished with salad and sauces, bought on the street from an Imbiss (mobile stand).
Moreover, the vast majority of döners are eaten by non-Turkish Germans. Back in the
1960s, döner vendors traded heavily on the ethnic exoticness or Turkishness of the döner,
but since the early 1990s the food has been increasingly deracialized, shedding its ethnic
signifiers and in many cases being rebranded using American symbols—hence the
"McDöner" of Caglar's title. This shift, Caglar explains, mirrored the mounting social
marginalization of Turks in Germany.

In the case of the döner kebap, then, we can witness the "invention" of a food symbolic of
ethnic identity, though in this case (unlike the Iranian ghormeh-sabzi) the food is largely
consumed by the "host culture" rather than by the immigrants. The "ethnic" markers
attached to the döner have subsequently been shed, reflecting the shifting social position
of the migrant group. As a final irony, Caglar notes that successful Turkish caterers in
Germany have switched to serving Italian food to a more up-market clientele.

A second example is provided by David Parker, in an essay called "The Chinese

Takeaway and the Diasporic Habitus." Like the indigenized Indian curry house (a key
provider of chicken tikka massala), the Chinese takeaway (takeout shop or restaurant) has
come to occupy a particular symbolic location on the British culinary landscape.
However, foods from the South and East Asian subcontinents are available through all
kinds of other food outlets, from supermarkets to trendy eateries. Moreover, food is only
one cultural product used in diasporic identifications; the development of distinct "ethnic
quarters" such as Chinatowns in many cities testifies to a broader-based cultural
infrastructure. For critics, the existence of such "ethnic quarters" merely furthers the
economic exploitation of diaspora, while for other commentators it suggests the success
of multiculturalism. Food outlets are commonly center stage in these kinds of urban
areas, testifying to the significance of the food distribution as a site for diasporic cultural
production.
Parker reads the Chinese takeaway as a key site for the negotiation of British Chineseness
in relation to the global Chinese diaspora. By focusing on the encounters between
workers and customers, Parker reveals a mode of interaction that he names the "diasporic
habitus," defined as "the embodied subjectivities poised between the legacies of the past,
the imperatives of the present, and the possibilities of the future" (p. 75). This habitus
shapes ways of "being Chinese" in diasporic contexts, and is the result of the uneven
distribution of "imperial capital" between Chinese and non-Chinese Britons: what occurs
in the takeaway bears the enduring imprint of colonial contact between Western and non-
Western peoples. Parker shows not only how these encounters are overlaid by orientalist
racialization, but also how this "contact zone" offers critical possibilities. Parker argues
(like Hage) for a contested (instead of celebratory) multiculturalism that explores the
complex interplay of identities in everyday locations. The takeaway, therefore, is an
emblem of British Chineseness rather than Chineseness—a situational outcome of one
particular diasporic foodscape.

Of course, the notion of British Chineseness still retains an emphasis on being (at least in
part) Chinese, rather than simply British. This is part of the diasporic burden mentioned
earlier: the necessity of retaining some degree of ethnic difference. In some cases, of
course, migrant groups may wish to reject, either partially or wholly, their ethnic identity,
and adopt the identity of their new "home." They may, however, be denied that possibility
by the "host culture," which wants to preserve their ethnic identity for a variety of
reasons. The deracializing of döner kebap illustrates an attempt by German Turks to
integrate more fully into German society at the same time that the ethnic marker of
Turkishness was becoming increasingly problematic there.

The existence of diasporic cuisine marks a complex negotiation between cultural

identities. For both German Turks and British Chinese, elements of their cuisines (or
"invented" versions of them) have become institutionalized on the foodscape. While this
may provide some level of economic security—the "success" of Chinese takeaways in
Britain is often reported as evidence for multiculturalism, at least in terms of business
culture—there are many compromises and dilemmas involved as well. As the döner
Imbiss and the Chinese takeaway both illustrate, mundane yet intensely symbolic items
such as food are woven in complex and shifting ways into discourses of tradition and
transformation, identity, and community. Diasporic diets, like all aspects of diasporic
identity and culture, are constantly remade, even while some key elements endure over
time.

Bibliography.

Brah, Avtar. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge, 1996.

Caglar, Ayse S. "McDöner: Döner Kebap and the Social Positioning Struggle of German
Turks." In Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural
Identity, edited by Janeen Costa and Gary Bamoosy. London: Sage, 1995.
Hage, Ghassan. "At Home in the Entrails of the West: Multiculturalism, Ethnic Food, and
Migrant Home-Building." In Home/World: Space, Community, and Marginality in
Sydney's West, edited by Helen Grace, Ghassan Hage, Lesley Johnson, Julie Langsworth,
and Michael Symonds. Annandale: Pluto, 1997.

Harbottle, Lynn. "'Bastard' Chicken or Ghormeh-sabzi? Iranian Women Guarding the

Health of the Migrant Family." In Consumption Matters, edited by Stephen Edgell,
Hetherington, Kevin, and Alan Warde. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

Moore, Willard B. "Metaphor and Changing Reality: The Foodways and Beliefs of the
Russian Molokans in the United States." In Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United
States: The Performance of Group Identity, edited by Linda Keller Brown and Kay
Mussell. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984.

Narayan, Uma. "Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity, and Indian Food." Social
Identities 1 (1995).

Parker, David. "The Chinese Takeaway and the Diasporic Habitus: Space

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