Digital Diasporas: Diasporas, Identity, and Information Technology

How does one move from the challenge of migration – sometimes traumatic – to the creation of hybrid identities, inclusive of democratic values, and supportive of integration, peace, and security? How might these identities lead to contributions of peace and prosperity in the homeland? How does the Internet support these processes? This chapter examines the relationship between diaspora, identity, mobilization, and the contributions of IT. Following a discussion of diaspora, I consider identity, why it is important and how it emerges. I then introduce the factors that influence diasporans' ability to mobilize identity, and analyze what motivates this mobilization and its direction. Next, I examine how IT contributes to facilitating diaspora identity construction, building diaspora communities, and supporting identity mobilization. I end the chapter with a summary model that links diaspora identity, community formation, and outcomes, identifying the Internet's contributions to each of these. WHAT IS A DIASPORA? Simply put, “Modern diasporas are ethnic minority groups of migrant origins residing and acting in host countries but maintaining strong sentimental and material links with their countries of origin – their homelands” (Sheffer 1986a, 3). Several features common to diasporas bind their members and suggest a potential for collective action. Cohen (1997, 515) identifies a range of these, including: A collective memory and myth about the homeland. An idealization of the putative ancestral home and a collective commitment to its maintenance, restoration, safety and prosperity, even to its creation. The development of a return movement that gains collective approbation. A strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time and based on a sense of distinctiveness, a common history, and the belief in a common fate [and] […]