Decolonizing Diaspora Studies: Accounting for the Transnational and Intersectional Interventions of “Striking” Diasporas

This chapter makes a case for decolonizing diaspora studies, a field which has been trapped in discourses that explain diaspora as emerging out of “ethno-political” struggles within nation-states. This has brought spatial and temporal limitations to understandings of diaspora. The chapter analyzes and reveals these limitations, paying attention to how such conceptualizations have erased links between the “empires” and diasporas using nationalist perspectives which have also curbed the transnational dimensions of diaspora. It argues that these limitations have created Eurocentric understandings of migration, diasporas, and ethnic diversity in the Global North. The chapter concludes that cultural plurality has been woven into the fabric of European history and society due to colonialism and empire. It makes a case for a decolonial perspective to diaspora and how diasporas need to be seen as agents of decolonizing the Global North.