Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction

Year 2024, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 221 - 223, 30.09.2024

Jalal Ts Selmi

Abstract

The global diaspora became an issue of global importance especially after 1990. After the stability of the international system in its current form and until 1990, migration took place according to categories classified as "labour migration", "family migration" and "brain drain or migration", but later it became "mass movement" and "mass refugee migration", and these two types of migration constitute the main focus of the migration issue. Cases of mass migration have been described under different names, including "mass uprooting", "mass dispersion" and "mass relocation", and then these cases have come to be called "hybrid integration". The term "diaspora", derived from the Greek word "speiro", which means "to spread" or "to disperse", seemed more streamlined and appropriate to describe cases of mass migration that lead to the emergence of new identities and new patterns of integration of human groups that settle in countries other than their homeland, thus forming communities with a hybrid identity and culture that emerged as a tangible result of the collective global diaspora. Although before 1990 the theme of global diaspora was associated with the Jewish, Armenian and African diasporas, after that date it acquired a profound diversity that included other nations.

After 11 September; when a terrorist attack took place in the United States, many things seemed to change and the diaspora discussions and the security agenda were part of this change and the various discussions that took place around it. The basic question that was raised about the issue of the collective diaspora was: Do collective diaspora identities imply disloyalty to the countries to which they moved and in which they were formed, or do collective diaspora groups adopt allegiance to the countries to which they moved and then engage in work within global development agencies and the governments of rich countries that has a positive impact on the economic and social development of their home countries and thus benefits the world?

These are questions that need to be answered, but they are not sufficient to understand the state of global diaspora, especially after the emergence of other terms that result from this diaspora, such as transnational identity, hybrid identity, multiculturalism, mosaic societies, globalisation and others. Robin Cohen's book entitled "Global Diaspora: An Introduction", provides a simplified and comprehensive clarification of the issues raised and the terms mentioned, especially as it approaches the topic by presenting examples of diasporas of various peoples throughout history.

Keywords

migration, diaspora, robin cohen

References

• Jalal Ts Selmi (2024) [Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction, Routledge], Turkish Journal of Diaspora Studies, 4(2), 221-223, DOI: 10.52241/TJDS.2024.0079