This weeks introduction of Asian Diasporas helped me contextualize the idea of diasporas in general. I understand that the reduction of race into categories trivializes the lived experience of real people; however, I am interested in the concept of diasporas.
In class we briefly discussed diasporas and their relationship to immigration.
Abstract example:
Diasporas are like squares. A square is also a rectangle.
Immigration is like a rectangle. A rectangle can only be a square if it meets the criteria.
Possibly more tangible example:
At the beginning of a diaspora people are in one region with their own specific group of people, however as they begin the process of diaspora, they begin to move—non linearly—into a different region, a transitional region. Then after leaving the transition region, the process of movement within the person begins to follow a pattern—similar to the pattern or rhythm of their "origin"—and the person remains a part of the processes of diaspora, but changed slightly. In some instances this is applicable to individuals, and in other instances this is applicable to groups.
Rhacel S. Parreñas and Lok C. D. Siu's idea of a process or movement based conceptualization is fascinating. Though a diasporic based racial project can be problematic it is significantly more inclusive to consider it as a live process.
The way you refer to diaspora as going from an outer physical process of moving to an internal process of feeling connected or drawn to ones origin makes the term diaspora feel split between the two. In my understanding, in order to identify an individual or group as diaspora they must have been through both processes. Because the later process is internal and individually specific I think it is interesting that we have intellectualized the term so much so that we have made it inaccessible to individuals. It seems to me that the term diaspora could be liberating if it became an accessible way to differentiate from the experience of an immigrant, which has it's own very specific criteria. If "A rectangle can only be a square if it meets the criteria" who can judge better whether that criteria is being met then the immigrant in question?
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