Diasporas Are Still Happening!

By Trent Colledge

Image Credits: Guardianlv.com_Refugee_Crisis

If you haven't heard of the current refugee crisis that is taking place, let's face it, you've been living under a rock. Millions of people have been forced out of their homeland because of war, most notably, the war "in Syria that began in 2013 and created nearly 8 million refugees or internally displaced people" (Aviani, 2014). This information comes from an article over a year old, and since then, those numbers have only gotten worse as more Syrian civilians are being pushed from their homes.

This is not a new issue, either. History has shown that these mass displacements of people have occurred before, so much so that they even have a name: Diasporas. A Diaspora is an event where "groups of people have been removed or displaced from their homelands due to territorial disputes, war, forced migration or immigration" (Edwards as cited by Kuttainen, 2015). There have been many diasporas in history, most notably the event that lead to the Rastafari movement. This movement in particular happened because "98% of the people of Jamaica are descendants of African Slaves" (Kuttainen, 2015).

When these Diasporas occur, something happens to the people who are affected by this and they connect with each other. As Ma Mung (2005) states, "during the migration an identity develops and is based on the feeling of sharing a common origin, be it real or supposed". This creates a sense of self and community identity between the refugees and those displaced by the Diaspora, and they begin to connect with those around them who they feel share similar origins and have been through the same ordeal as themselves.

Although Facebook has been known to connect communities, in terms of Diasporas and the refugee crisis in Syria, something else has happened - people are banding together in aide of the refugees. Many hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people across the globe have shown their full support for these refugees and are begging their countries governments to help out. This has crossed over into the real world, not just social networking sites, and people have begun taking action, and it's been amazing to see humans as a race come together in aide of their fellow human.

References

Kuttainen, V. (2015) Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place, lecture 7: People networks [Powerpoint Slides] Retrieved on September 11, 2015 from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Ma Mung, E. (2005) Comparative European research in migration, diversity and identities. Retrieved on September 11, 2015 from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Aviani, V. (2014) Refugee crisis highest numbers since world war II. Retrieved on September 11, 2015 from http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/refugee-crisis-highest-numbers-since-world-war-ii/

Image Credits

Refugee Crisis [Image] (2014) Retrieved on September 11, 2015 from http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/refugee-crisis-highest-numbers-since-world-war-ii/