Similarities And Similarities Between Diaspora And Transnationalism

Human migration can be influenced by various different stressors, whether it be by choice, in hopes of starting a new adventure, or by force, fleeing brutal persecution of a certain threat. Each individual has a unique story, all coming from different backgrounds and places around the world. However governing and political bodies often need certain labels and categories in order to define such a diverse set of people. Such legal definitions seem unnecessary or extensive due to the limitations they pose onto one’s identity, but they are a byproduct of sketching lines on the landscape and securing borders, protecting those who inhabit and belong.

Transnationalism is defined as as “the process by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement.”(lecture Mixtects). When a native person becomes a transnational they are then participating in sustaining their culture and memories where ever they travel. Transnationalism implies that native migrants continue to be involved in the life

Immigrants belonging to a specific country in diasporic conditions fluctuate between two identities and two different cultures. These two cultures are mentioned as donor and recipient. Therefore, a situation arises in almost all immigrants, mainly in those who have more prominent cultural distance between the donor and recipient country. Wherein a severe constitution takes place to the places of cultural identity and adaptation. This condition of riding two cultures concurrently leads to division not only on individuals but also communities in the host culture that causes social uncertainty and disorder. This occurs because most migrations are not intended, but required by socioeconomic fragmentation. Therefore, migrants do not try to make essential changes in their social-cultural assessment. They treat this migration as virtuously momentary. Thus, their continuous repetition of the cultural patterns and ethics carried with them from donor society and their unwillingness to absorb the recipient society cause conflicting conditions isolating them from the host

Diaspora is the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral home land or in this case a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic location. The poem “Diaspora” by Chelsea Dingman ventures through the journey of a Ukrainian girl leaving her country and the in the pride she receives from that journey and her heritage. The poem focuses around the hardships that are included in taking this journey and how she lose so much, the feelings of despair and weakness is all she has left.

To begin it is helpful to understand that the word “migrant” is a rather contested concept, one that changes over time, and varies depending on the criteria used to assign it.(Raghuram & Erel, 2014, p.133)

Many people choose to migrate to another country to pursue a better life where one can make more money with higher standard of living. However in the town Ticuani, located in Mixteca, Mexico, many people choose to “transnational” between their native country and United State, New york. Where one will spend sometime in New york and some other times in Ticuani, and their life will be moving back and for the between country. Even though this sound like an easy plan, but immigrant who did this had to adapt life from both countries and faces difficulties and problems from two places.

At its most fundamental, diaspora focuses on the physical movement of people. However, comprehensive scholarship elevates “diaspora” beyond

No diasporic community manifests all of these characteristics or shares with the same intensity an identity with its scattered ancestral kin. In many respects, diasporas are not actual but imaginary and symbolic communities and political constructs; it is we who often call them into being.” (Palmer)

The journey that comes when relocating from one country to another can be a significant challenge for migrants through the idea of belonging.

Migrants cultivate their status as outsiders in a variety of ways. Some migrants are able to collaborate their identities with both the aspects of their ethnic heritage and their local community, at times managing to create a dignified sort of reputation within a sea of suspicious gazes. Then there are some who refuse to perceive their heritage as part of their individual identities, while doing their utmost to belong to a community separate from that of their parents. The struggles of various migrant communities and individuals are difficult to transfix at a simple point. What does appear to be the most prominent strand of commonality, however, is the idea that while migrants may not be able to guarantee a way to avoid being seen as outsiders by others, it is within their everyday abilities to refine their relationships as migrants towards others as they

Migration has contributed to the richness in diversity of cultures, ethnicities and races in developed countries. However, individuals who migrate experience multiple stresses that can impact their mental well-being, including the loss of cultural norms, religious customs, and social support systems, adjustment to a new culture and changes in identity and concept of self. “Migration is defined as any permanent change in residence. It involves the ‘detachment from the organization of actives at one place and the movement of the total round of activities to another” (Drachman, Kwon-Ahn, Paulino, 1996,

Transnational communities are sometimes referred to as Diasporas: globally dispersed populations whose origins lie in a single homeland or set of linked homelands. Diasporas have become a common feature of the common world. One of the effects of the growing salience of such identities in some people’s lives is to reduce the sense of affiliation to the states in which those diasporic populations reside. In John’s case, the majority of his family migrated to Australia, leaving him with only small familial links in his home country of England. “I’ve been able to keep in contact regularly through writing letters, and I’ve been back to England about 2-3 times since migrating to Australia to visit the extended family, and they’ve been here to see us too.

Centuries ago, when trans national movements of people were not subject to strict immigration rules, scholars did not consider immigration worth of analysis. Samuel Herbert did not consider immigration as an issue to affect customs, character, or the institution of the British people; “…it is no more able to affect the qualities of the nation than a can of hot water is able to affect the qualities of the nation than a can of hot water is able to affect the temperature of the sea (Samuel, 1905:332). Today no serious social scientist could possibly ignore the effect of immigration since immigration is an issue more than a ‘can of hot water in the sea. Although it is believed that every nation is to be the creation of overlapping generations of immigrants (Stalker 2001), it is essential to understand that the current influx of migrant(labor) in the processes of international migration and globalization is fundamentally different from earlier forms. In modern immigration, it is noticeable that dramatic shifts in destinations, restrictions on residency and overtly strict limitations on settlement, imposed by immigration policies (Falson 2004).

In simple terms, the Diaspora as a concept, describes groups of people who currently live or reside outside the original homelands. We will approach the Diaspora from the lenses of migration; that the migration of people through out of the African continent has different points of origin, different patterns and results in different identity formations. Yet, all of these patterns of dispersion and germination/ assimilation represent formations of the Diaspora. My paper will focus on the complexities of the question of whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return to Africa. This will be focused through the lenses of the different phases in the Diaspora.

In the article “Diasporas”, historian and anthropologist James Clifford explores the issues that can arise when trying to concretely define diaspora, a “traveling term, in changing global conditions”. Clifford explains, the concept of diaspora was used in the study of Jewish and later Greek and Armenian displaced groups. However, since the 1950s it has been commonly evoked in reference to African forced migration and is now used to describe a variety of peoples and relocation experiences. In addition to ‘diaspora’, other terms are also being used quite heavily in discussions of the movement of people, including “border”, and Clifford explores the differences and similarities between people living in a state of “border” versus a state of diaspora while both suggest connections and “multilocalities” of people “borders” implies a politically and geographically defined line, where as a diaspora connotates a further distance of separation, and possibly a sense of exile. Clifford discuses these connections and