Diaspora is the movement of indigenous peoples, or a population of a common (ethnicity-wise) people to a place other than the homeland or home/settled region. Diaspora can be voluntary or forced, and usually the movement is to a place far from the home region. In the US, most people are familiar with Native American diaspora (displacement of American Indians out of their territories, and later, to reservations), and African tribal diaspora, when slaves were forcefully moved from their homeland to Europe and the US as a result of slavery.
The word diaspora comes from the ancient Greek meaning 'a scattering or sowing of seeds'. Over the centuries the meaning has altered. The Greeks used populations of settlers to colonize their conquered terrioties thus making them part of their empire. They spread Greek culture to other areas. In the Old Testament the word came to be used for Jews who were exciled from Judea in 586BC and again from Jerusalem in AD 136. Many ethinic groups have been forced or induced to leave their native lands for a variety of social. economic and political reasons. There have been a diaspora of African, Greek, White ussian, French Canadian and Armenian peoples to name but a few. In the history of Britain and Ireland the Highland Clearances forced may Scots to leave there land and emigrate taking their own culture and embodying it in their new settlements, an example of this is found in Nova Scotia. The Irish Famine c 1845-1850 was the cause of a great but terrible Diaspora when over a million Irish people were forced to leave Ireland and try to make a life elsewhere. It is estimated that well over 25 million people worldwide have at least one Irish ancestor.
