Representations of Diasporic Identities in Britain

Abstract

The word “diaspora” is derived from the Greek words diaspeirō, meaning “I disperse”, “I scatter,” and diaspore meaning “dispersion” (“diaspeirō,” “diaspore”). Hence, diaspora refers to a scattered population and their descendants sharing a history, language and culture, living dispersed and outside of their original geographical locales, that is their ancestral lands. Such displacement of mass numbers of people is at times of a voluntary and at times of an involuntary nature, and encompasses a variety of reasons which can be grouped as natural, colonial, slave trade, indentured labour, political, religious and economic, although some of the headings can obviously overlap.