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Originally Posted by Tuckerman
A very interesting question, and an ancient one. Th whole human population appears to be a diaspora out of Africa - although a while back.
Personally, I find that in many cases in the USA, there is a relationship to self-perceived identity which may or may not be very accurate. Thus we have people who had some relative come from Ireland 3-4 generations ago identifying themselves as Irish. In a sense, I have no idea what that means. Some of my relatives came from Scotland in the late 18th Century to America; I have a Scottish surname and lived in Edinburgh for 10 years. But, I am not Scottish by any reasonable definition, nor would I claim to be. So this brings up the question? "When does a so-called diaspora end?" Are those Ireland lovers in So Boston really Irish? What period of assimilation time is necessary for any individual stemming from some earlier relocation to still consider themselves part of a diaspora?
Of course this is very complicated and confounded by ideas about religion, nationality, identity, race and any number of factors that make a discussion of this topic very difficult. Good luck with this one.
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I'm with you on this, as per my example above of my ancestry.
I've also lived and worked in Asia for many years and have many friends from around the world in the expat community. I've learned from them, and hopefully they from me. We've merged our cultures on our various holidays and the ways in which we celebrate them. I've got great friends here from four continents, not to mention my many Chinese friends and other Asian friends who live and work here. When I go back to the States, though I'm from there, I feel out of place because my life is elsewhere...even though my culture is rooted there. My young son was born in Texas but has thus far lived in China. He will most certainly be bilingual and possibly trilingual. I've learned a lot and have adapted some to Asian culture, but I will never be Asian, of course (nor would I ever claim this). My son, on the other hand, while obviously white, will relate much more to Asian culture than American culture if he continues to grow up here (assuming we don't move at some point) and will feel pretty out of place if he moves back to Texas for college or something. So, technically, he's American of European descent, but his worldview may be more Asian as he grows up. The world is a super confusing place, haha.
I think this all goes to show why I truly don't like a lot of the race/religion questions on the census and other surveys. In some ways I get why they're there, but I almost wonder if they truly need to be there.