Showing papers on "Diaspora published in 2022"

The Arab Spring Abroad

Abstract: The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 sent shockwaves across the globe, mobilizing diaspora communities to organize forcefully against authoritarian regimes. Despite the important role that diasporas can play in influencing affairs in their countries of origin, little is known about when diaspora actors mobilize, how they intervene, or what makes them effective. This book addresses these questions, drawing on over 230 original interviews, fieldwork, and comparative analysis. Examining Libyan, Syrian, and Yemeni mobilization from the US and Great Britain before and during the revolutions, Dana M. Moss presents a new framework for understanding the transnational dynamics of contention and the social forces that either enable or suppress transnational activism. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The Model Minority Myth, Data Aggregation, and the Role of Medical Schools in Combating Anti-Asian Sentiment.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an alarming increase in hate incidents directed toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), including verbal harassment and physical assault, spurring the nationwide #StopAsianHate movement. This rise in anti-Asian sentiment is occurring at a critical time of racial reckoning across the United States, galvanized by the Black Lives Matter movement, and of medical student calls for the implementation of antiracist medical curricula. AAPIs are stereotyped by the model minority myth, which posits that AAPIs are educated, hardworking, and therefore able to achieve high levels of success. This myth acts as a racial wedge between minorities and perpetuates harm that is pervasive throughout the field of medicine. Critically, the frequent aggregation of all AAPI subgroups as one monolithic community obfuscates socioeconomic and cultural differences across the AAPI diaspora while reinforcing the model minority myth. Here, the authors illustrate how the model minority myth and data aggregation have negatively affected the recruitment and advancement of diverse AAPI medical students, physicians, and faculty. Additionally, the authors discuss how data aggregation obscures health disparities across the AAPI diaspora and how the model minority myth influences the illness experiences of AAPI patients. Importantly, the authors outline specific actionable policies and reforms that medical schools can implement to combat anti-Asian sentiment and support the AAPI community.

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract This commentary proposes a reorientation of diaspora studies towards new configurations of participation and identification. Digital media affordances in this sense are just such new configurations that enable, sustain and multiply diasporic encounters through social media platforms, digital devices and infrastructures. The emerging digital diasporas do not oppose or replace traditional diasporas, but on the contrary further expand and transform their agency in the digital age Mihaela Nedelcu (2018). In our thinking, we are inconversation with, as well as departing from, previous notions of diaspora. In this commentary, we briefly establish the complex and non-linear genealogy of the term, as partaking in multiple disciplinary takes and discursive orientations, and then migrating to the new realm of technology and digital connectedness.

Ecological Memory in the Biophysical Afterlife of Slavery

Abstract: Building on the work of Saidiya Hartman, Black studies scholars have long theorized and analyzed what it means to exist in the afterlife of slavery, which refers to the precarity and devaluation of Black life since chattel slavery. This article draws the natural environment into this discourse to conceptualize the biophysical afterlife of slavery. The biophysical afterlife of slavery describes how the precarity and devaluation of Black life has affected the natural environments in which these lives exist. Slavery left lingering impacts on soil, water, and vegetation regimes as it maneuvered and settled across the earth, but importantly, its ideological and sociopolitical legacies continue to impact Black ecologies today. I argue that to methodologically attend to the biophysical afterlife of slavery there must be a meaningful integration of critical physical geography and Black geographies. As an example of this integration, I suggest that there is a myriad of methods used to reconstruct environmental histories, such as dendrochronology that, when brought together with a Black geographies lens, create mechanisms to analyze the past, present, and future of the biophysical afterlife of slavery.

Struggling for Recognition

Abstract: As a religious and cultural minority in Turkey, the Alevis have suffered a long history of persecution and discrimination. In the late 1980s they started a movement for the recognition of Alevi identity in both Germany and Turkey. Today, they constitute a significant segment of Germany’s Turkish immigrant population. In a departure from the current debate on identity and diaspora, Sökefeld offers a rich account of the emergence and institutionalization of the Alevi movement in Germany, giving particular attention to its politics of recognition within Germany and in a transnational context. The book deftly combines empirical findings with innovative theoretical arguments and addresses current questions of migration, diaspora, transnationalism, and identity.

Diaspora as translation and decolonisation

Abstract: This book proposes a novel way of conceptualising diaspora by examining how diasporas do translation and decolonisation. It critically engages with, and goes beyond, two dominant theorisations of diaspora, which are coined ‘diaspora as an ideal-type approach’ and ‘diaspora as hybridity approach’. If diaspora is to have analytical purchase, it should illuminate a specific angle of migration or migrancy. The aspect defended in this book is how diasporas do translation and decolonisation.The book explores such issues by conceiving of diasporas as the archetypal translators, who put new identities, perspectives and ideologies into circulation. They can domesticate, rewrite, erase and foreignise. They bring disruptions and destabilisations. The book examines such processes by advancing a variety of useful conceptual tools and heuristic devices for investigating diasporas, such as ‘diaspora as rewriting and transformation’, ‘diaspora as erasure and exclusion’, ‘diaspora as a tension between foreignisation and domestication’, ‘radical inclusion’ and ‘radical remembering’, with a specific focus on and examples of diasporas in the Global North. It also provides a detailed empirical study of Kurdish diaspora in Europe and unpacks how ethno-political translations of their identity are central for the transnational battles of Kurds, including how they undo colonisation, carrying out both foreignisations and domestications in their engagements with the Global North, and exposing links between their predicament and Europe. Additionally, the book considers the backlash to diasporas of colour in the Global North through an examination of the increasing discourses of ‘anti-multiculturalism’ and ‘the left-behind’/‘traditional’ working class.

When Diaspora Politics Meet Global Ambitions: Diaspora Institutions Amid China's Geopolitical Transformations

Abstract: Through a case study of China, one of the largest emigration states and a rising global power, this article probes how a homeland state envisions diaspora politics amid geopolitical transformations. Drawing on historical, policy, and interview data, I argue that China's changing positioning toward Chinese emigrants, triggered by the state's geopolitical vicissitudes, has reshaped and repurposed diaspora institutions. I find that since the 2010s, China's diaspora policies have shifted away from soliciting diasporic support for domestic economic growth and national unification and toward liaising externally with migrants to expand Chinese soft power abroad. In consequence, diaspora institutions with more extensive overseas connections and flexible working experiences have taken precedence over formal state agencies specialized in domestic policymaking. This article makes two theoretical contributions to a multilevel understanding of diaspora politics as traversing simultaneously the domestic and global political fields. First, following neo-pluralism, I examine China's diaspora bureaucracy as composed of a diverse set of state entities with distinctive, or even contradictory, interests, orientations, and philosophies. These organizational variations shape diaspora institutions’ different strengths and fluctuating significance in China's shifting geopolitical strategies. Second, by situating emigrants and diaspora institutions in the macrohistorical framework of world politics, this article pushes research on diaspora politics into more profound dialog with world-systems theory. Rather than assuming an asymmetric interdependence between weaker emigration countries and hegemonic immigration countries, I demonstrate how an aspirational homeland state seeks to challenge this established world order and accomplish its geopolitical ascendancy through diaspora re-strategizing and institutional reshuffling.

Dilemma of Dual Citizenship Issues in Indonesia: A Legal and Political Perspective

Abstract: The issue of dual citizenships has been in much of the debate over the years. Many developed countries such as US, UK, Australia, and Switzerland have no restrictions on holding dual nationality, whereas countries such as Singapore, Austria, India, and Saudi Arabia do not “recognize” or “restrict” dual citizenships, leading to automatic loss of citizenship upon acquiring other. Some countries such as Austria, Spain may still grant dual citizenships upon certain special conditions under exceptional cases like celebrities. The implementation of dual citizenship nowadays is not something strange or unusual things internationally. By considering the international environment that is nowadays being wider and no limit, everyone has an easy access to go abroad. In Indonesia, the concept of dual citizenship still limited to the children from inter-marriage, while consider the amount of Indonesian diaspora in another country this is the time for Indonesia to upgrade or revise the citizenship system in Indonesia.

Organized Scientific Diaspora and Its Contributions to Science Diplomacy in Emerging Economies: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract: The current knowledge society has driven an unprecedented mobility of people, especially scientists, from emerging economies to developed countries. This mobility can allow the development of human talent and the access to first class infrastructure and resources, but it can also mean a loss for emerging economies due to the phenomenon of brain drain. To counteract this situation, some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have developed models for the articulation of their scientific diaspora in projects and programs, with the aim of exchanging knowledge and capitalizing on human and technical resources to advance science, technology and innovation systems. Likewise, science diplomacy has become a tool for interlinking the work of various actors in order to advance the solution of national, transnational or global problems through scientific advice. Scientific diasporas are vital in new structures of cooperation, enabling them to innovate and solve problems jointly, advising their countries of origin and articulating policies and programs. This research seeks to analyze the interactions and initiatives identified between the organized scientific diaspora from Latin America and the Caribbean and their countries of origin in relation to science diplomacy processes, providing recommendations and proposals for public policy to improve the interaction between the diaspora and the governments of their countries of origin. Results show that diaspora organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean engage with governmental and non-state actors and are active science diplomacy stakeholders promoting the scientific developments of their country or their researchers, as well as enabling access to research resources creating alliances for scientific, institutional and academic collaborations. In the cases studied, these efforts are planned and executed by the diaspora without responding to any science diplomacy strategy of the country. Policies and programs are needed to effectively link the scientific diaspora organizations to the interests of the countries.

Proactive internationalization and diaspora mobilization in a networked movement: the case of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill protests

Abstract: ABSTRACT One distinctive feature of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong is the ‘international front’ on which both Hong-Kong-based activists and members of diaspora communities engaged in public diplomacy and foreign government lobbying. While the emergence of the international front can partly be explained by perceived political opportunities and protesters’ identity change, this article focuses on the evolution of mobilizing structures. Of particular interest is how the mobilizing structures were activated, expanded, and transformed in a protest campaign marked by certain core features of networked social movements. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty activists, the analysis illustrates the co-presence of and complementarity between digitally enabled, citizen self-initiated actions and organization-based mobilization. The analysis also shows how tactical shifts, negotiation of differences among activists, and state response drove the transformation of activist network. General theoretical implications on understanding of diaspora mobilization and networked social movements are discussed.

Diasporas as cyberwarriors: infopolitics, participatory warfare and the 2020 Karabakh war

Abstract: How do diasporas fight online information wars during armed conflicts in their homelands? I explore this question through interviews with 30 young diaspora Armenians in seven nations about their practical experiences of online activism during the 2020 Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I examine their motivations for engaging in social media activism; strategies and methods of promoting the Armenian narrative; vision of the online opponent; and perceived outcomes of their efforts. Besides investigating this recent case of diaspora mobilization during armed conflict, the study offers broader conclusions about social media and participatory warfare, and about the changing roles of diasporas in international relations. I demonstrate how social media enable participatory war that is transnational, monologic, empowering and retaliatory, involving individual and networked tactics, and culturally and politically transformative. Diasporas, traditionally seen as international agents of lobbying, public diplomacy and material assistance, become important decentralized actors in global conflict infopolitics.

The Chinese Diaspora and The Attempted WeChat Ban: Platform Precarity, Anticipated Impacts, and Infrastructural Migration

Abstract: In August 2020, the U.S. President issued an executive order to ban the Chinese-based social platform WeChat, alleging that WeChat posed a national security risk. WeChat is a vital application for Chinese diasporic communities in the United States. The ban's status was uncertain for several months before it was temporarily halted and later revoked in 2021. Through interviews with 15 WeChat users and online participant observation, this study examines the anticipated impacts of the potential WeChat ban and participants' reactions. We find that participants described negative consequences of the potential ban, including adverse network and economic effects and disruption of community-building efforts. We also find that many participants considered WeChat to be critical infrastructure in the United States, as it has become an indispensable part of their daily lives. To frame participants' experiences, we introduce the concept of infrastructural migration-the process of users relocating to another digital media service that embodies the properties and functions of infrastructure or moving to an assemblage of different applications that meet their infrastructural needs separately. We then discuss implications for designing for infrastructural migration and future considerations for HCI research with diasporic communities.

Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas

Abstract: Diasporas play a critical role in home-country politics by supporting social, political, and economic change therein. Yet, regimes countermobilize against activists abroad by repressing their diasporas. This paper investigates a widespread but overlooked method in the transnational repression toolkit: that of ‘proxy punishment’, that is, the abuse of family members at home as a means to manipulate and subjugate dissidents abroad. Using 246 original interviews with diaspora activists from Syria, Iran, Egypt, and Libya, the analysis demonstrates that regimes deployed five tactics against diaspora members’ non-activist families at home: harm and confinement, threats and harassment, forced participation in regime propaganda and slander, resource deprivation, and travel bans. We then identify the mechanisms shaping how diaspora members responded to this repertoire. The paper concludes with implications for research on transnational diaspora activism, globalized authoritarianism, and collective dimensions of the repression-dissent nexus.

Review of Displacement, Space, and Identity in the Postcolonial Novels of Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry and Manju Kapur

Abstract: Purpose: This study focuses on the themes of displacement, space, and identity depicted in the post-colonial novels of Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, and Manju Kapur. Post-colonial writings, particularly novels, deal with two major issues concerning the ‘modern people’ - displacement and search for identity. This study tries to analyze the treatment of these themes in the selected novels of the authors selected for the study. Design/Methodology/Approach: For the study, many research articles, books, and research theses have been reviewed. Previous studies on similar lines have been thoroughly read and reviewed to get a comprehensive idea of the work that has been done so far. Both offline and online resources have been consulted for the study. An exploratory analytical discussion approach of research methodology is adopted to carry on the study. Finding/Result: After reading and reviewing the resources available on the topic selected for the study, it has been found that the theme of displacement, space and search for identity has been a recurrent theme in the novels of Jhumpa Lahiri, Rohinton Mistry, and Manju Kapur. These issues have been dealt with in the novels of these writers either explicitly or as an underlying theme. Originality/Value: The study proposed to be conducted will be original since the study dwells mainly on displacement it focuses on space in the formation of identity. Space excludes and includes individuals and communities. The analysis on displacement in connection with space and identity in the writings of the diasporic writers and writings on diaspora sheds a light on the aspects of the formation of identities in the postcolonial scenario. Paper Type: Review Article

The Venezuelan diaspora: Migration-related experiences and mental health.

Abstract: Since 2015, the Venezuelan diaspora has poured forth from the Venezuelan sending context into an array of (mostly) middle-income receiving countries and into the United States (US) as well. For many Venezuelan migrants, post-migration reception has been mixed, and multiple studies suggest that mental health is an important challenge with discrimination and negative context reception contributing to mental health burden in terms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. Cross-national research points to important sociodemographic differences between Venezuelan migrants resettled in South American contexts and in the US, and suggests that-on average-migration-related cultural stress is lower and mental health outcomes are better among those resettling in South Florida and elsewhere in the US.

Digitized diaspora governance during the COVID‐19 pandemic: China's diaspora mobilization and Chinese migrant responses in Italy

Abstract: Abstract We explore how the Chinese diaspora state during the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 managed to transform a severe health crisis into a geo‐political opportunity for transnational nation‐building through diaspora governance based on extensive use of social media technologies. By adopting a multi‐scalar perspective, we analyse the intertwined nature of top‐down and bottom‐up processes of the Chinese Party‐state's diaspora mobilization. Based on discourse and ethnographic analysis, we argue that China's diaspora governance exposed a new and strong capacity for extra‐territorial governance. We explore how discursive hegemony, social control and diaspora mobilization were achieved by widely employing the Chinese social media application, WeChat. We also contend that this was facilitated by the Italian government's and media's pro‐China attitudes to emphasize the importance of considering transnational embeddedness when studying the implementation and impact of interactive online technology for diaspora governance in an illiberal political context.

“Food Is Our Love Language”: Using Talanoa to Conceptualize Food Security for the Māori and Pasifika Diaspora in South-East Queensland, Australia

Abstract: Queensland is home to the largest diaspora of Māori and Pasifika peoples in Australia. They form an understudied population concerning experiences and challenges of food insecurity. This community co-designed research aims to explore the conceptualization of household food security by Māori and Pasifika peoples living in south-east Queensland. Participatory action research and talanoa were used to collect and analyse forty interviews with leaders representing 22 Māori and Pasifika cultural identities in south-east Queensland. Eight key themes emerged that conceptualise food security as an integral part of the culture and holistic health. These themes included: spirituality, identity, hospitality and reciprocity, stigma and shame, expectations and obligations, physical and mental health and barriers and solutions. Addressing food insecurity for collectivist cultures such as Māori and Pasifika peoples requires embracing food sovereignty approaches for improved food security through the co-design of practical solutions that impact social determinants and strengthen existing networks to produce and distribute affordable and nutritious food.

Local-to-local electoral connections for migrants: the association between voting rights in the place of origin and the propensity to vote in the place of residence

Abstract: ABSTRACT The study of transnationalism raises important questions about the effects of political rights that international migrants enjoy in different places. We contribute to this debate asking the following question: Do international migrants who retain voting rights in the place of origin have a greater propensity to vote in the local elections of the country of residence than those who do not retain such rights? We analyse individual-level survey data of voting turnout in the 2015 municipal elections in Geneva, combined with information about voting rights in the municipality of origin (local-to-local connections) and in the country of origin (national-to-local connections). We find statistical effects of national-to-local connections only in models with no additional control variables, while the statistical effects of local-to-local connections are strong and robust. This points to an association between retaining voting rights in the municipality of origin and the propensity to vote in the local elections in the country of residence. We suggest that local-to-local electoral connections are produced by spill-over: By actively pursuing the diaspora, political parties, unions, and local electoral commissions act as vehicles of greater electoral participation not only in migrants’ municipality of origin, but also in their municipality of residence.

Currents and Cross-Currents on the Black and African Theology Landscape Today: A Thematic Survey

Abstract: ABSTRACT This article attempts to lift up the salient, latest most cutting edge currents and cross currents in black and Africantheologies on the continent and in the diaspora. As well as proposing an analytical framework, the article articulates the key challengesfacing black and African theologies today.

The Art of Resistance in Islam

Abstract: Based on first-hand ethnographic insights into Shi'i religious groups in the Middle East and Europe , this book examines women's resistance to state as well as communal and gender power structures. It offers a new transnational approach to understanding gender agency within contemporary Islamic movements expressed through language, ritual practices, dramatic performances , posters and banners. By looking at the aesthetic performance of the political on the female body through Shi'i ritual practices – an aspect that has previously been ignored in studies on women's acts of resistance -, Yafa Shanneik shows how women play a central role in redefining sectarian and gender power relations both in the Middle East and in the European diaspora.

African American Archaeology, for Now

Abstract: A focus on institutions frames this examination of the archaeology of African America. While initially emphasizing the institution of slavery and theories of Black difference, the field today has a much wider scope. Researchers engaged in this work critically examine past and present-day institutions. As such, this review also considers the place of African American archaeology in engaged scholarship, critical theory, and self-reflexive practice. As in past reviews, the emphasis is on the United States, with occasional references to important work in the rest of the African diaspora. African American archaeology is shown to be inextricably interwoven with scholarly work in North American archaeology, African American studies, heritage studies, and social theory. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology Volume 51 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.