Origins of the word ‘Diaspora’:
The word Diaspora comes from the ancient Greek meaning 'a scattering or sowing of seeds'. Over the centuries the meaning has altered.
Many ethnic groups have been forced or induced to leave their native lands for a variety of social, economic and political reasons.
In the history of Britain and Ireland the Highland Clearances forced may Scots to leave there land and emigrate taking their own culture and embodying it in their new settlements, an example of this is found in Nova Scotia.
The Irish Famine in 1845-1850 was the cause of a great but terrible Diaspora when over a million Irish people were forced to leave Ireland and try to make a life elsewhere. It is estimated that well over 25 million people worldwide have at least one Irish ancestor.
To completely understand the significance of the word ‘Diaspora’, I researched and explored my own.
For instance, ‘The Indians Abroad’ web-site is dedicated to the people of India living abroad. The main focus of this website is to discuss real-life information on the experiences of overseas life, and share an honest and open opinion about living in a different culture and a different society.
I chose this website because it covers a wide range of social issues including day-to-day experiences, common myths and other social aspects. It has a lot of information and opinion about all kinds of Non-resident Indians' (NRI) experiences, benefits of living abroad, and hardships of foreign life. The topics cover many misconceptions and unrealistic expectations about living abroad as well.
One of the main goals of the site is to help improve NRIs’ overseas living experiences. All kinds of ‘NRI tips’ and suggestions on a variety of issues related to personal growth are discussed. Other topics that relate to personal development also include ‘Communication Skills improvement’ and ‘career Planning’.
There are many articles that focus on the jobs and occupations in foreign countries. Information on jobs in high demand, and different business ideas are regularly explored. NRI Banking is one of many other topics.
There is a logical link between the definition of “Diaspora” offered and the rest of the report that makes it useful in the report, yet the link does not appear through specific words. I actually think that the original meaning of Diaspora is beautifully and metaphorically related to its new use. It does really have to do with growing a culture in a different place similar to the way seeds are grown when dispersed to areas that are different from their original areas. It is a dispersion of world cultures causing a long lasting effect of globalization through online communities. Online communities is a world of communication and a faster mean of transmitting what diaspora members know of the new culture to which they are exposed. The formation of an online community in India is a formation of a culture generating society inside a British society. As I can conclude from the report, online communities also allow expatriates to send their experience of a new culture back to their homeland same way as Indians tell their experiences in Britain to their fellows in India.
ReplyDeleteHi Reetu,
ReplyDeleteThat's well interesting about the well over 25 million people may have a link to Irish ancestry; a lot of my friends seem to have a link to an Irish relative. I would just like to point out something your blog reminded me of; during my high school years when I was studying Literature, a lot of what we focused on was the idea of alienation in first generation immigrants. A lot of this is seen in terms of language, for example, my grandparents only spoke Arabic but their children mastered the foreign language and when I went back to Zanzibar at a speaking age, they found it absolutely stunning that me and my brother could speak English - for them, English was a language of adults and they couldn't understand how we did not speak their language; this leads to some form of disappointment like you're failing your own roots if you do not pass on your culture. So the idea that there are websites out there dedicated to help people fit in and learn new aspects of the host culture while learning to adapt in their community is a positive shift for the so-called 'information society'.
Maryam.
The example about the Irish at the begining of you're post was interesting to me, as i never knew that before, you giving that example, stood out from the other posts about diaspora on here (in my opinion that is) I aslo like that the website you found has the whole "personal growth tips", that's different from the community websites that i found.
ReplyDeleteAhlam EL-Zubeidi.
Reetu, your post is really interesting and knowledgeable, but don't you think that the sites you chose are a little out of topic?
ReplyDeleteI don't mean that they do not relate to your diaspora but all I meant to say that they are not informative. I think that you should have included a site about India's history for example. Something that would interest other people to visit the site and know more about your country. I still like the first two sites you wrote about and you were really creative by choosing sites that not only would let people know what is happening in India, but also help in improving their country.
Keep up the good work and it was very interesting to get the Irish example ;)
Ola El Barkouki
Cool post Reetu.
ReplyDeleteI like how you started and narrowed it down to your own Diaspora, the facts you put up definitely caught my attention and kept me reading. The 'Indians Abroad' is a really good idea. Having people with similar backgrounds, communicate from all over and just share stories is amazing. It makes you wonder, why wasn't there a site like this when I needed one? Earlier in my post I was talking about growing up in London not knowing I was Iraqi, and once I did, it was like.. okay.. now what do I do with this? People need to find that comfort in eachother somehow.. someone needs to just scream it out.. "you are not alone, and you are not the only british- iraqi here.'' and the website you have chosen happens to do just that. It makes that search alot more easier. It definitely sounds interesting to continue looking into.
Thanks.
Suzanne Darkan