Paradoxes of homecoming: The Jews and their diasporas

There can be little doubt that the "homeland-diaspora" paradigm has firmly entered into the contemporary social-science vocabulary. It influences the ways in which many social scientists, historians, as well as the variety of media specialists, presently conceptualize critical features of the modern world. According to the paradigm, attention is focused upon groups that migrated or were driven from their native land (the "homeland"), and subsequently found their way to other places (a "diaspora") where, over lengthy time periods, they maintained their own distinct communities and dreamed of one-day returning to their Ancient Home.
Based upon this formulation-and also propelled to the forefront by globalization, population upheavals, and the pulsating world-wide currents of immigration-a barrage of published research has carved out a new field labeled "diaspora studies." These studies have focused upon, to cite several examples, Pakistani immigrants in England, Palestinians in Middle Eastern refugee camps and the Gulf States, Jews and Armenians in their respective diasporas, the "Black Atlantic" diasporas that grew out of the brutal slavery suffered by African populations, Turkish immigrants in Germany and other European countries, Indian immigrants in North America, and a great many others. As is apparent, a wide range of difference exists between these migrating overseas groups, just as the societies within which they reside are equally different. Nonetheless, the growing number of studies has generally succeeded in showing how diasporic communities retain a certain separation and internal cohesion while at the same time adjusting to their new host society, and also how they maintain interactive contacts and involvement with their real or imagined homeland.