Diaspora: An Introduction

International migrants uprooted from family, friends, and nation–state, and scattered across the globe form vibrant diasporic communities. Whether through economic migration, political asylum, or corporate mobility, this type of wide scale dispersion of populations brings with it a myriad of important issues.

Diaspora: An Introduction offers a critical overview of this timely phenomenon, with a specific focus on diasporic shifts post–1989 and post–9/11. The text is organized thematically, reaching beyond human migration to explore a variety of issues–––globalization, realpolitik and geo–economic shifts in a post–9/11 world, the fractured politics of national boundaries, border crossings, terrorism, and homeland security. The book also examines the geopolitical and legal realignments that influence diasporic communities, global migration patterns, and worldwide debates about citizenship, nationality, and political belonging.

Acknowledgments.

Preface: Between Homelands and Homelessness? New Diasporas, Global Refugees.

Introducing Diaspora: Key Terms.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

1. Diasporic Workers, New Global Economy.

Case Study: "La Frontera": Transborder Migrations, Mexican–American Diasporic Workers.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

2. Gender and Diasporas.

Case Study: Filipina Working Diasporas in the US, Hong Kong, and Italy.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

3. Global Traffic.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

4. Queer Diasporas.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

5. Race and Diasporas.

Case Study: Outsiders Within: Les Beurs and France s Crise des banlieues .

Case Study: Barred Entry: Haitian and Southeast Asian Asylees in the US and Australia.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

6. Transnational Activism, Diasporic Arts of Resistance.

Case Study 1: Troubled Waters, Dam Nation, Grassroots, and Transnational Indian Diasporic Resistance: Whence Narmada?.

Case Study 2: Haitian Diaspora and Transnational "Tenth Department" Activism.

Case Study 3: Filipina Maids in Hong Kong.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

Postface: Diasporic Shifts Post–9/11.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion.

Additional Research.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index

Jana Evans Braziel is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati. She has co–edited Theorizing Diasporas (with Anita Mannur, Blackwell, 2003).

"The book will be of interest to scholars as well as students in the field, though there is a clear emphasis on the latter, and the book contains an opening set of definitions dealing with key terms ( refugees′ and detainees′, rather than hybridity), with each chapter ending on a series of questions for readers to consider. The book closes with one of the most substantial bibliographies we have come across on the subject of diaspora (over sixty pages) and will be a useful resource for future research in the field." ( Postcolonial Theory, October 2010)