Diasporas

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Know your diasporas !     Here are just a few of my favorites (from Wikipedia):

• The Acadian diaspora - the Great Expulsion (Grand Dérangement) occurred when the British expelled about 10,000 Acadians (over three-fourths of the Acadian population of Nova Scotia) between 1755 and 1764. The British split the Acadians between different colonies to impose assimilation.

 

• Armenian diaspora - Armenians living in their ancient homeland, which had been controlled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries, fled persecution and massacres during several periods of forced emigration, from the 1880s to the 1910s.

• Cherokees - a Native American tribe indigenous to the Southeastern United States, whose official tribal organization is Cherokee Nation based in Oklahoma, United States, which has 800,000 members as of 2005. However, anthropological and genetic experts in Native American studies have argued that there could be over one million more Cherokee descendants scattered across North America. The beginnings of the Cherokee diaspora was from their forced removal in the Trail of Tears.

 

• Cuban diaspora - the exodus of over one million Cubans (the largest community is in Miami, Florida, United States) following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. (See also Cuban Americans).

 

• French Canadian diaspora - includes hundreds of thousands of people who left Quebec for the United States (most went to New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont), as well as Ontario and Western Canada, between about 1840 and 1930.

 

• Indochinese diaspora - includes the refugees from the numerous wars that took place in Southeast Asia, such as World War II and the Vietnam War.

 

• Irish diaspora - consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States (see Irish Americans), the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, and nations of the Caribbean and continental Europe, where small but vibrant Irish communities continue to exist. The diaspora contains over 80 million people and it is the result of mass migration from Ireland, due to past famines and political oppression. The term first came widely into use in Ireland in the 1990s when the then-President of Ireland, Mary Robinson began using it to describe all those of Irish descent. Notable people of the global Irish diaspora are United States president John F. Kennedy and Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins are of part-Irish descent.

 

• Jewish diaspora - in its historical use, refers to the period between the Roman invasion and subsequent occupation of Land of Israel beginning 70 CE, to the establishment of Israel in 1948. In modern use, the 'Diaspora' refers to Jews living outside of the Jewish state of Israel today. There is a 'Ministry of Diaspora Affairs' in the Israeli government, for example. Not all Jews, though, regard themselves as part of a diaspora community.

 

• Mexican Americans - over 20 million people of Mexican background live in the United States, ranging from recent immigrants since the 1970s to long-established Americans of Spanish or Mexican descent. The majority of Mexican Americans live especially in the American Southwest, which borders with Mexico, an area that belonged to Mexico from 1821-1848. They were fundamental to development of the states of Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico in the 20th century. Los Angeles is said the second largest Mexican city, while the populace of San Antonio, Texas is over half of Mexican descent. Also known by other ethnic self-titles, like Chicanos, La Raza, Tejanos, and Californios, however are officially called Hispanics and Latinos in terms of ethnic or cultural origins, but Mexican Americans had a large mestizo or mixed European/Native American heritage.

 

• Palestinians - fled Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (see Palestinian exodus, Palestinian refugees and Israeli-occupied territories).

 

• Persian Diaspora - A.k.a. Iranians are a major community in Los Angeles, aka Tehrangeles; 20% of the population is Persian, the major number of Persians in Los Angeles are located in Westwood, aka Little Persia, and 25% of Beverly Hills is Persian or Iranian, even the mayor of Beverly Hills is Persian. Other large Iranian communities exist throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, east Asia and Australia, make up a total of ten million belonged to the Persian/Iranian diaspora, the majority are political refugees who fled the overthrowal of the Reza Shah regime in 1978 and Islamic Revolution of 1979.

 

• Puerto Rican diaspora - a mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States began during the first half of twentieth century and has become a subject often studied in colleges, because of Puerto Ricans who achieved success in the United States. The largest Puerto Rican communities in the mainland U.S. are New York City, New Jersey and in Florida, but other Puerto Ricans live in all 50 states including Hawaii, and also a smaller community in Canada.

 

• South Asian diaspora - includes millions of people from India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, whose descendants live in Suriname, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, and other countries who left British India in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and millions more who have moved to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in recent decades (see Desi, British Asian, South Asian American, Indo-Canadian).
  • Indian diaspora - estimated at over 30 million, refers to people originating from India living in other parts of the world.
  • Tamil diaspora - denotes people of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil origin who have settled in many parts of rest of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Reunion, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, French Caribbean islands, Europe, Australia and North America (US and Canada).
  • Chitpavan Diaspora - Hindu converts of mixed Indian and East European (primarily Jewish) descent who migrated to India centuries ago.
  • The Roma (English terms: Gypsy, Gypsies) - a traditionally 'dispersed' people in Europe, with origins in South Asia (or perhaps, northern India) for 800-some years, are even more 'dispersed' today, following the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. (See Some names for the Roma) Over 10 million Roma live across Europe, the majority in Eastern countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia), and estimates of 250,000 Roma are known to live in North America (the US and Canada).

 

• Sephardic Diaspora - in 1492 Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain expelled all persons who were not members of the Roman church specifically Jews and Christians of Jewish origin.

 

• Scottish diaspora - includes the Highland clearances which depopulated large parts of the Scottish Highlands and had lasting effects on Scottish Gaelic culture; the Lowland Clearances which resulted in significant migration of Lowland Scots to Canada and the United States after 1776; the Ulster-Scots, descended primarily from Lowland Scots who settled Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century and subsequently fled to the Americas in mass numbers throughout the 18th century due to religious and cultural persecution as well as other socio-economic factors. Other Scots and Ulster Scots went to Australia, South Africa and Argentina.

 

• Tibetan diaspora - began in 1959 when the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet. Most Tibetan refugees live in the United States, India (home to the exiled Dalai Lama, still the official leader of a nation no longer in existence), and Europe (over 30,000 went to Switzerland).