The Controversy Of Diaspora

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.

The migrant experience varies for each person, some will have endured traumatic episodes in their life and these experiences are explored in Skrzynecki’s poetry. Through thorough interpretations of Peter Skrzynecki poems, ‘Crossing the Red Sea’, ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Immigrants at Central Station’ the responder gains insight into the emigration experience which encompasses the physical and emotionally draining journey which is a result of the grave uncertainty and doubt lingering around the migrants future. Despite this, through each of his poems the composer also alludes to a future filled with hope and a sense of belonging.

Immigration can be justified by many reasons. Some say immigration can be a positive change in someone’s life or a negative change in one’s life. Many people leave for similar reasons. They are fleeing a negative phenomenon in their current home or they are seeking another opportunity in another place. While progressing through these 3 stories, I was able to feel and understand what was happening during these times, not only regarding the move from one place to another, but the effect immigration had on these people, whether it was an immense impact or a minor impact.

In contrast with Skrzynecki’s disconnection through place and identity, Anh Do’s, ‘The Happiest Refugee’ elucidates a more positive sense of belonging. Through the use of anecdotes, he explains that it didn’t take long before his father found a job and moving out of “East Hills Migrant Hostel” within weeks, depicting that his family was trying to fit into their new country, their new culture,

Leaving one's own country and moving to another is one of the most difficult journeys anyone can make. In one's home country, he or she has a place, an identity that is

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth first-hand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyzes the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

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.

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth firsthand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyses the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

In the reading, “The Immigrant Enclave: Theory and Empirical Examples,” Alejandro Portes and Robert D. Manning primarily discusses the process that immigrants go through as they go about adapting and integrating into their new society. As the reading states, often when immigrants migrate to new societies, it is either for economic reasons as a means of achieving a better life for themselves or that of seeking political asylum as political refugees. A real world example of an immigrant enclave today is that of the thousands of Syrian refugees who emigrated to the United States and other countries in an effort to flee the Syrian civil war. During the midst of the Syrian crisis, many Syrian refugees sought

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 Southern Diaspora and The Origin of the Urban Crisis correlate well with one another. Readers will find that both works of literature are connected to one another due to both events causing a change in the way African Americans and Caucasians lived their lives post migration.

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 chapter titled “Reflections on Exile,” Edward Said discusses the different aspects of being an exile. His discussion of exile includes what it means to be an exile, the feelings that being an exile produces in individuals, exile in relation to nationalism, and the role of exile in the modern world.  Said first defines being an exile as a state of terminal loss. He states, “the achievements of exile are permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind forever” (173).  He then contrasts this terminal loss with the cultural impact that exile has had on the modern West.  He states that, “modern Western culture is in large part the work of exiles,” (173) and, “our age[...] is indeed the age of the refugee, the displaced

Regarding the negative effects of migration on women lives, it is important to point out that the situation of female migrants is surrounded by oppression based on gender, class and ethnicity which increases their vulnerability (Ariza, 2000). On the other hand, women and men as migrants share certain conditions; such as being foreigners, living in unpredictable situations, cultural barriers, language or racial prejudice; these situations are different experiences for everyone, in relation to their gender identity and

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