We Live in a World of New Diasporas - Essay Example

We live in a world of new Diasporas Introduction Diaspora refers to the dispersion, migration or movement of people away from their ancestral destination for whatever reason. Diaspora may also be described as the settlement of people in locations away from their homelands. The term Diaspora has been described as a mass dispersion of people involuntarily. This occurs in situation of forced migration. Examples of forced migration include the Jews involuntary dispersion from the Middle East, African mass expulsion during slave trade or the Cypriot Diaspora. Diaspora is against the principle of human rights especially if the Diaspora is as a result of forced migration. However, instances of Diasporas never seem to end. In various parts of the world we often come to experience instances of forced migrants who are forcefully evicted from their home countries and expelled to new countries without regard to their rights to reside in whichever destination they prefer. For instance, the forceful migration of the Cyprians to many parts of the world due to invasion from the Turkish militia is unrealistically injurious to the rights of Cyprians. It indicates that the world is indeed a world of new Diasporas. This paper attempts to describe the situation of Diasporas and explain whether the world is a world of new Diasporas or not. Using the case of forced migrants in the Cypriot Diaspora, this paper will examine the circumstances surrounding Cypriot Diaspora and establish whether the Diaspora is an indication of the world being ailed with new diasporas on not. In order to bring the situation into a clear perspective, this paper will first explain what Diaspora actually means, when it started, whether it is still occurring and whether there is still some emergence of new Diasporas. The paper will then examine Cypriot Diaspora in depth so as to determine the situation of new Diasporas in relation to forced migrants. This examination if the Cypriot Diaspora will help the writer to support the argument in way that the reader will be able to understand. What are new Diasporas? When people talk about Diasporas, what comes into one’s mind is the contact of different countries in terms of borders, travels and Diaspora. As explained earlier, Diaspora refers to dispersion of people out of their home countries to new destinations across the world. However, it is not clear whether the Diasporas experienced in the past during the colonial period are the same as the Diasporas of today. Studies indicate that there are new Diasporas that seem to relate to the colonial Diasporas. It is unfortunate that the current world is experiencing Diasporas just like during the colonial and the slavery period. In fact, it is more worrying to hear of forced Diasporas in this modern world. In general, Diaspora is described in terms of evictions, immigration, exile, refugees, expatriation, etc. All these factors constitute Diaspora. Clifford (1994) describes new Diaspora in terms of cultures, communities, region and center and periphery. He contends that Diaspora involves the migration of distinct communities which exhibit a given set of social relationships. This means that such people in Diaspora tend to extend social ties to include people who live far. Therefore, separate far places often become single communities through continuous circulation of people across the world. Migration and Diaspora explain the formation of complex cultures across the world. Clifford (1994) also explains some Diasporas in terms of cultural displacements and dispersion of migrants’ practices. Therefore, traditions and cultures play a crucial part in describing new Diasporas. There are some kinds of Diasporas in the current world which occur as a result of exchange and displacement of cultures and practices as people migrate from one cultural setting to another. These kinds of Diasporas include the movement of Aguilillans from California to Michoacan. In order to describe the aspect of new Diasporas clearly, it is important to identify the aspects of historical paradigms associated with movement of people across borders. Nations are always separated geographically by borders and political lines. Different political territories are distinctly guided by different policies and political governance. However, these separate territories are joined by legal and illegal acts of crossing and communication (Clifford, 1994). Studies have also shown that Diasporas often seem like an exile to those who move long distances and are separated from their friends and relatives for quite unpredictable period of time. Migrants in Diaspora often experience aspects of longing, identity crisis and memory. When these migrants are separated from their homes by oceans and substantial political barriers, they find themselves in constant relations with their former nations (Hayter, 2000). This is occasioned by the increasing forms of cross-border technologies of transport and communication. It is therefore important to sort out paradigms and keep maintain historical orientations (Clifford, 1994). The problems that Diasporas face are mostly related to cultures, relations with other people and practices. There are always conflicts of interests which may identify and seclude those who are in Diaspora from the dealings of favour that may accrue to the natives of the country inhabited by such individuals in Diaspora. As mentioned earlier, the term Diaspora and the predicaments experienced by those who are in Diaspora may be explained in terms of centrality, periphery, communities, cultures and practices. Safran (1991) defines Diasporas as expatriates from minority communities who are displaced from an original centre to more than one periphery outside their original centers. Diasporas often keep remembering or holding myths and visions about their original countries. They often believe that they are not, and will never be part of the communities which they join in Diaspora. They pre-suppose that they may not be accepted by the new communities they interact with in Diaspora. They hold on to the belief that they will return to their homeland someday; at least at the right time if not soon. People in Diaspora also believe that they are able to maintain or restore their homelands. Such Diasporas are also characterized by solidarity and consciousness occasioned by their commitment to restore their homelands. This is an unquestionable aspect which unifies similar cultural communities in Diaspora. According to Safran (1991) the general features of Diaspora are therefore: historical dispersion, memories of their home countries, alienation by host countries, desire and belief to return to their original homeland, unceasing support for their home countries and solidarity collectively identifying those communities in Diaspora. Given the above features of a Diaspora, Clifford (1994) holds that no society qualifies in all counts and carries all the above features. It is further argued that apart from the above features of Diasporas, there Diaspora’s borders also define the aspect of Diaspora. People in Diaspora do not move or disperse like immigrants. Immigrants are often assimilated to their destination countries with ease and become part of those countries. However, people in Diasporas hold common allegiances and connections to a home country or homeland (Graham & Khosravi, 1997). Those people who have also been dispersed elsewhere and come from the same country tend to hold common connections and are rooted to their cultures and beliefs. Diaspora cultures are often antinationalist. People in Diaspora are dispersed in transnational networks that are based on attachments and accommodating one another as well as the resistance to the host’s traditions and norms. Unlike travel, Diaspora is not temporary. It involves setting up of communities and settling collectively in homes away from home. As opposed to exile, Diaspora is not individualism. It involves communities moving to establish a home together in areas away from home. People in Diaspora maintain their identities so as to make a difference within the destinations where they live while they are in Diaspora. They show selective aspects in accommodating the political, cultural and commercial activities of their host countries (Clifford 1994). People in Diaspora also attempt to use different ways to live like their hosts. This means that those in Diaspora are struggling to be the hosts and be something else at the same time. There are people in Diaspora who have been displaced from their homes due to dispossession of their land by other superior groups such as political groups, ethnic societies or colonialists (Hannerz, 1996). The displaced are always a class of tribal peoples. They are dispersed to different parts of the world where they continue their cultural practices and hold on to the belief of returning back home someday and repossess their land. The result of this dispersion is that the displaced individuals will lose their home and become alienated. In this sense, the Diasporas result in contemporary tribal lives characterized by a common culture and traditions. Tribes that lose their members through dispersions tend to lose their political/cultural standards in many ways, especially through the influence of foreign cultures and political orientations in their host countries. In order to retrieve the identity of those tribally dispersed people, their language plays an important role. Language in this case acts as one of the dimensions of tribal lives which can be used to identify the dispersed members of a given tribe. Fortunately for tribal dispersions, communities in dispersion often maintain their language and travel circuit. This enables them to link with other dispersed members and those who remained at home. However, the world is characterized with changing conditions in terms of technologies, globalization, neocolonialism and international relations. These changing conditions lead to the restructuring and re-routing of travel circuits of people in Diaspora depending on the prevailing dynamics of the internal and external environments of the host countries. As a result, tribal displacements result in new tribal networks. Modernization affects the original tribal forms of people in Diaspora (Cassia, 2007). This is because colonial powers tend to undermine and assault indigenous sovereignty. The introduction of capitalism in western cultures as well as the emergence of nation states has also affected the cultures of dispersed people in Diaspora. This is in essence an affective aspect of Diaspora in developed countries such as USA and UK. In this case, the state and the capitalist nature of those countries affect the tribal groups of people who are in Diaspora. They become permanently occasioned to live in cities and abandon their older forms of tribal groups and adopt new cultures as they permanently settle in their host countries. The Case of Cypriot Diaspora Cypriot Diaspora is a good example of a Diaspora characterized by the features explained above. Cypriot Diaspora refers to the dispersion of people of the Cyprus populations from their home country. They include the Turkish Cypriot Diaspora but they are mostly Greek Cypriot Diasporas. The Greek Cypriot Diaspora includes the members of the Greek Cyprus origin who have been displaced from their homes in Cyprus (Ansari, 2004). These people of the Greek Diaspora live abroad due to either economic problems in their country or the eviction by the Turkish invasion. The inhabitants of the Northern Cyprus were uprooted by the Turkish invasion in 1974. During this period, Cyprus was sub-divided into two; the northern part was controlled by Turkey while the Southern part was controlled by Greeks. The Northern people were then forced to flee their homes and establish Diasporas in Southern Cyprus and other countries such as the UK. Other Cyprians were also forced by economic conditions to flee their homes due to economic conditions which were not favourable in their country. Most of the members of the Cypriot Diaspora are living in United Kingdom, especially in London. The invasion of Turkey actually forced them to flee their homes and become members of a massive dispersion in what is known to be the Cypriot Diaspora (Glick-Schiller, Basch and Szanton-Blanc, 1995). Some of the Cyprians who were forced to flee their homes due to the Turkish invasion also went to Australia. This made them to vulnerable to many of the issues of Diasporas explained above. In particular, the members of the Cypriot Diaspora often have the belief of going back to Cyprus and fight for their right to repossess their country. In fact, many Cyprians in Diaspora have been going back to their country to advocate various issues of Cyprians who live in various countries across the world. This indicates that the Cyprians in Diaspora have hope to be back to their country and own their resources or get a share of their resources even as they live in Diaspora. Cyprians have also migrated to other countries such as the US. They also include the Turkish Cypriot Diaspora. This king of Diaspora includes the Cyprians of Turkish origin who are dispersed from the Island of Cyprus to various countries in the world including the United Kingdom. It was reported by the Turkish ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001 that there were about 500,000 Cypriots living in Turkey (Ansari, 2004). 200,000 Turkish Cypriots are also reported in United Kingdom within the same year (Ansari, 2004). Furthermore, there were about 40,000 and 10,000 in Australia and Northern America respectively (Ansari, 2004). 11 years later in 2012 there are still 500,000 Turkish Cyprians who are in Diaspora Turkey while those in United Kingdom have increased to 300,000 from 200,000 in 2001. Furthermore, the figures for Turkish Cyprians in Australia increased to 120,000 compared to 2001 when the Turkish Cyprians in Diaspora in Australia were only 50,000 (Ansari, 2004). In USA, the number of Turkish Cyprians in Diaspora reduced to 5,000. These statistics indicate that the Turkish Cyprians who are in Diaspora have increased significantly in number since 2001. Due to this fact, the issue of forced Diaspora has become a major challenge to Cyprians (Ansari, 2004). While they attempt to restore and maintain their culture and their line of traditions in their host countries, the Cyprians are faced with quite a number of problems which are characteristic of any other members of a community in Diaspora. Cypriot Diaspora characterizes a group of people who have been displaced from their countries and who have a big task to ensure that they maintain their communities and culture in the countries where they go. The main challenge is that the countries where these members of the Cypriot Diaspora flee to are different in language, culture and political issues. As a result, the members of the Cypriot Diaspora are forced to be like the people in their host countries despite their need and desire to maintain their groupings as Cyprians. Language barrier has also become a major challenge to the Cyprians who are in Diaspora. In order to undertake any political, economic or commercial practice in their host countries, it is necessary for the Cyprians in Diaspora to get accustomed to the language and cultures of people who are in Diaspora (Cassia, 2007). For instance, the Turkish Cyprians who were forced to move to United Kingdom during the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey speak Turkish. However, the language spoken in the UK is English, making it difficult for Cyprian people to communicate during their day to day activities in UK. As a result, they are forced to learn new language and new culture. This threatens the unity of the Cyprians and the maintenance of their native culture. Despite facing major challenges in Diaspora, members of the Cyprian Diaspora often communicate with other Cyprians who are in their home country in Cyprus as well as those who are in Diaspora. The Cyprians in Diaspora also exhibit a good desire to go back to their country and change issues affecting their country. In fact, the Cyprians in Diaspora are going back to their Cyprus very often to fight for the rights of Cyprians who are in Diaspora. The modern level of technology and dynamics which allow for transport and communication across the world has allowed both the Greek and the Turkish Cyprians who are in Diaspora. The figures of Cyprians in Diaspora as shown above indicate that Diaspora is still a great challenge in the current world. The Cypriot Diaspora was occasioned by the invasion of Cyprus by both Turkey and Greece. Until now, the Cyprus people are still in Diaspora in many countries. This indicates that the current world is indeed characterized by what seems to be new Diasporas. The fact that the Cypriot Diaspora is a forced Diaspora shows that the current world is not able to deal with neocolonialism. People in Diaspora are often the victims of neocolonialism and in most cases if they have to go back to their countries and enjoy their lives in their native homes, they have to unite, communicate often and go back frequently to their countries and agitate for their rights. Some of the problems that have been reported so far which affect the people in Cypriot Diaspora include the negative effects of the Diaspora on the Economy of the Cyprians. Due to the Cypriot Diaspora, there has been a stagnant economy in the Cyprian Cypriot. This is because the Turkish Cypriots were deprived of their economic sovereignty by the Greek Cypriots who controlled Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots were also evicted from their northern lands of Cyprus. This has made the Cypriots in Diaspora to lack means by which they can control their economy (Cassia, 2007). Therefore, this has caused the Cypriots to lose foreign direct investments, exports and financial aids. The end-result is the stagnation of the Cypriot economy. Generally, the economic problems occasioned by the invasion of Turkey and Greece have caused over 130,000 Turkish Cypriots to migrate to the UK since the invasion started. The big issue that all these Cypriots need to address includes their freedom to get engaged in decision making processes in Cyprus. The dimension of Diasporas in terms of forced migration and dispersion is very clear from the migration of the Cyprian displacement to UK, USA, Australia and other countries. Although some sources indicate that Cypriot Diaspora was occasioned by the unfavourable economic situation in Cyprus, further look deep into the issues of the Cypriots indicates that the economic problems were not the real reason for the migration. On the contrary, it is clear that the control of Cyprus by Turkey and Greece are the main reasons for the movement of the Cypriots to other countries. This is because as Turkey and Greece control the economy of Cyprus, the Cypriots find it difficult to access economic resources, making them to flee to other countries in order to be better in terms of economic stability. Therefore, the Cypriot Diasporas are a true result of forced invasion of Cyprus by Turkey and Greece. They can therefore be referred to as forced Diasporas. Forced Diasporas are always more detrimental than willful Diasporas. This is because the people in Diaspora feel attached to their homeland and they may not be able to withstand the treatment they face from their hosts (Cohen, 1997). Furthermore, people in Diaspora may become hopeless and get psychologically disturbed if they are forced to depart their homes without their will. Therefore, the Cypriot Diasporas are not comfortable in their host countries such as the UK, USA and Australia because they feel attached to their home country and feels the pride of controlling their own economy. This is the reason why the members of the Cypriot Diaspora always go back to their countries to fight address the issues of the Cypriots in Diaspora. Conclusion The current world is not short of the Diasporas experienced in the past. There are still instances of Diasporas the entire world over. In fact, there have been instances of forced Diasporas including the Cypriot Diaspora. In any situation of a Diaspora, there are characteristics common to all Diasporas. First, there are centers and peripheries in every Diaspora. People who are in Diaspora often move from their centers to at least two peripheries which become their host countries or regions. The people in Diaspora also believe that they will one time go back to their home country and re-establish their economy. Furthermore, the people in Diasporas also keep communicating with each other and go back to their countries frequently. There are both forced and willful members of a Diaspora. In our case, we have used a case of Cypriot Diaspora which consists of Cypriots who were forced out of their country Cyprus by Turkey and Greece. The forced Diaspora has led to the migration of thousands of Cypriots to various parts of the world. This is seen to be a problem to the economy of Cyprus, but the Cypriots in Diaspora are determined to control their own economy in the near future. References list Ansari, H. (2004). The Infidel Within: Muslims in Britain since 1800, London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Cassia, P. S. (2007). Bodies of Evidence: Burial, Memory, and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus. London: Berghahn Books. Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9(3), 302-338. Cohen, R. (1997). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press. 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