Diaspora entrepreneurial networks : the Maltese in eighteenth-century Spain : a comparative perspective

Abstract

Migration has been a feature of human existence since the very dawn of history. It has taken various forms and its intensity has varied over time. The transnational communities that are formed as a consequence of these migrations are often referred to as ethnic diasporas. The term ‘diaspora’, of Greek origin and meaning ‘dispersion’ or ‘scattering’, has come to refer to a very broad range of situations including: migrants in general; political, religious and other refugees and expellees; ethnic and racial minorities and aliens; and so on. The fact is that the semantic domain of the term ‘diaspora’ has been ‘stretched’ so much that it has come to include virtually all expatriate groups. Safran has suggested, not without some justification, that it is perhaps a matter of asking ‘What ethnic community that has migrated, or that consists of descendants of those who have done so, is not a diaspora?’ . Inclusion clearly has to have limits if the term ‘diaspora’ is not to completely lose its usefulness. But it is not simply a matter of whether this or that ethnic group is a diaspora at a particular point in time. Problems of inclusion and exclusion arise even within ethnicities. Even if we limit ourselves to the classical cases it is clear that a Jew, a Greek or an Armenian do not belong to a diaspora just by virtue of being of Jewish, Greek or Armenian origin. Garfinkle has pointed out that half the Jews in present- day America marry a non-Jew, while more than half receive no formal Jewish education at all. At this rate, most American Jews will have become Jewish Americans, as a temporary way station to total assimilation, within a couple of decades.