The Persecution Of Diaspora

The term diaspora originates from the Greek word diaspora which means dispersion and had been primarily used for Jewish Émigrés from Palestine and the Middle East (Hoehne 2010: 63). With time the term started to be used in academia, politics and media for ethnic, cultural and religious groups that had left their homelands for other countries and permanently settled to a host country over generations. Persecution of ethnicity, religion and political beliefs or poverty were reasons for leaving. According to a study conducted by the World Bank, over 200 Million people in the world are permanently living in a country in which they were not born (World Bank 2014). If we count children born in the new host countries, who still have linguistic, cultural

By expression of a conflict, I understand the methods the conflict had been conducted on the ground. That can be armed conflicts, such as war, terrorist attacks or diplomatic negotiations. During periods of intense armed conflict or as a response to persecution of their fellow compatriots, diaspora groups have mounted campaigns of protests ranging from systematic lobbying, violent actions or to large humanitarian donations that gained large worldwide media coverage. The goal is to go beyond the black and white picture of diasporas as either “good or bad guys”, but to take make an inquiry that would give a differentiated assessment when and under which circumstances and type of engagement do they have impact on escalation and de-escalation of conflicts. This engagement is not only determined by the diaspora but also on the circumstance on the ground during a conflict. Under circumstances I mean integral parts of conflict such as different actors, political goals, the expression of a conflict or the way the conflict terminated. Therefore, I ask: “How do Diaspora engage in conflicts in their homelands and how does this engagement impact on escalation and de-escalation events in the

I distinguish two dimensions of the relevance of diaspora engagement in conflicts. Of which both are not directly addressed with my thesis, but have a strong social and political impact. The first one is the conflict in the homeland and the second the influence on political and social decision making in the host country. The first dimension is that understanding the nature of diaspora engagement in the homelands, the international community could use them as peace-makers or understand their types of engagement strategies in order to reduce their escalating effect on the situation. Thus with the conflicts in Ukraine, in the Middle East and the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, the question how people who leave their homelands engage in conflicts and how they support the cause of their parties are becoming a social and increasingly also a policy issues for countries such as Germany in which numerous strong diaspora groups exist. Such diaspora engagement draws the host country indirectly in the conflict, or at least influences it’s approach to the conflict. Furthermore, radicalized youth in European cities that are bringing the conflict home, such as in the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, are calling for a more understanding how diasporas influence the foreign policy of their host country and the