Week 3: The Diaspora and the Niche Market

Our readings this week focused on several elements pertaining to nationalism, among them the diaspora, or the transnational, “imagined community.” It is implied in the readings that the diaspora is facilitated on a mostly ethnic basis. As people disperse throughout the world, either forcibly or voluntarily, the way they maintain contact is through the diaspora, as a means of keeping elements of culture and national identity alive.

Karim H. Karim states that people draw from their similar or shared beliefs, customs, symbols and myths, from their territorial origins (the idea of the “old country”) to create these diasporas. These psychological motivations create a strong sense of nationalism, even though there may not be a fixed “nation” to hold on to anymore. The host of diasporas has created a market for content in the media, everything from television shows to music to newspapers created for niche markets.

But as the media and its technologies have progressed, the world seems to have gotten smaller. It’s not hard for an immigrant in New York City to communicate with loved ones at home in Albania, or to find someone from their home country to go to the movies with in NYC. The idea of the “nation” is no longer connected to territorial boundaries.

As Karim puts it, the broader range of human dispersals means that the diaspora is not just based in a homeland myth. I would argue that the diaspora is no longer simply connected to ethnicities, but any niche interest that creates a strong psychological bond and results in products and media targeted to that bond. The so-called “Red Sox Nation,” for example, is not ethnically based, and anyone who’s witnessed a game at Fenway Park wouldn’t dispute the attachment to the team. Many fans, in fact, would identify themselves as Sox fans first, Americans second.

Diasporas add to a sense of a global identity. Because of the multitude of outlets for media, the broad range of people they reach, everyone, not just the originators, can partake. It is not only a way for an ethnicity to stay in touch, it is a way for others to learn. This might be a simple, idealistic proposal, but through the diversity of diasporas, and the interaction between them, a true “global identity” could be created. Although the mass of diasporas could highlight the differences between cultures or national identity, the similarities would also be highlighted. In the public sphere, making distinctions between cultures might find parallels that would surprise us.