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List of diasporas

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History provides us with many examples of notable diasporas.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Note: the list below is not definitive, and includes groups that have not been given significant historical attention. Whether the migration of some of the groups listed fulfills the conditions required to be considered a diaspora may be open for debate.

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B

C

D

E

  • Ecuadorian diaspora - People from Ecuador who reside in countries across the Americas (i.e. the U.S., see Ecuadorian Americans, also in Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil), Europe (esp. Spain and Italy, with some in France and elsewhere), and smaller numbers in Japan and Australia.
  • Estonians - Over 5 million known ethnic Estonians live/reside outside Estonia after the Nazi invasion of 1940 and the Soviet annexation of 1945, both led to massive deportations across the former USSR (many went to Siberia) and refugees went to the US, followed by Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK and smaller numbers to China, Japan, Australia and Mexico.

F

G

H

I

J

  • Jaffnese/Ceylonese Diaspora - refers to the diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamils, especially those post-1983 due to the civil conflict in Sri Lanka. This has created huge Tamil communities in countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries. In many ways, the Jaffnese Diaspora is compared to the Jewish Diaspora, both historically, socially and economically. It is a subset of the greater Tamil Diaspora.
  • Japanese diaspora - Brazil (see Japanese Brazilian), the United States (see Japanese Americans), Canada (See Japanese Canadian), as well in Peru and Chile, and smaller numbers in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico are the countries with the highest numbers of Japanese people outside Japan. The largest community of ethnic Japanese is in Hawaii where they make up a quarter of the state's population. However, there are smaller Japanese communities around the world that developed in the late 20th century such as throughout western Europe, eastern Russia and South Africa. The Japanese population used to have nicknames to indicate generational levels: "Issei"-foreign born parents, next is "Nisei"-1st generation born outside Japan or children, and "Sansei"-2nd generation born outside Japan or grandchildren.
    • Okinawans - An Asian people closely related to the Japanese in terms of culture and language, from the island of Okinawa, politically part of Japan since 1878. After WWII, the U.S. briefly ruled Okinawa from 1945 to its' return to Japanese rule in 1972. Since then, tens of thousands of Okinawans settled in the U.S. and in the 1960s, massive settlement programs of Okinawan farmers into Latin America, the majority in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.
  • Jewish diaspora - in its historical use, refers to the period between the Roman invasion and subsequent occupation of Land of Israel beginning AD 70, to the establishment of Israel in 1948. In modern use, the 'Diaspora' refers to Jews living outside of the Jewish state of Israel today. Not all Jews, though, regard themselves as part of a diaspora community.
    • Jewish groups and histories greatly vary from one another in each country, notably large communities represented in the global Jewish diaspora: Jewish Germans, Polish Jews, French Jews, Jewish Russians, Jews in Italy, Jews in the U.K., Jews in Holland, Jews in Hungary, Romanian Jews, Greek Jews, Oriental Jews (from the Middle East), North African Jews (mainly from Morocco), Egyptian Jews, Ethiopian Jews (the Falasha), Iranian Jews, Indian Jews, a small Chinese Jewish group, Jewish Americans the world's largest in this current time, Jewish Canadians, Jews in Latin America, South African Jews and Jewish Australians.
    • Jewish return to the Land of Israel began massively since the end of the Nineteenth century. By 1947, there were around 600,000 Jews in Palestine. In 1948, in accordance with the United Nations resolution 181, supported by a majority of over two thirds of the general assembly (including both the United States and the Soviet Union), the independent Jewish State of Israel was established.

K

  • Korean diaspora - a people from the Korean peninsula located between China and Japan. The first wave of Korean diaspora was during the Japanese colonial occupation (1910-1945), the peace treaty division of the Korean peninsula into two republics, the Korean War (1950-53) produced a wave of millions of war refugees who fled to the United States, Canada, China, Japan, the Philippines, South Vietnam until 1975, and the USSR, now Russia. Today, Korea remains a politically divided geographic unit. South Korea was under military rule 1953-1987, now a civilian democracy, but economic problems and a sense for adventure made over 500,000 South Koreans emigrate to the United States and Canada, and 100,000 more to Europe, Australia and South America (i.e. Brazil and Argentina). North Korea remains under an isolationist military state under Communism since 1948, while millions of political refugees fled to nearby China for freedom in the late 20th century.
  • Kurdish diaspora - Kurdish diaspora is the Kurdish populations found in regions outside their ancestral homeland Kurdistan.

L

  • Lebanese diaspora
  • Lithuanian diaspora - the majority of post-WWII Lithuanians live in North America (Canada and the United States) and across Europe (France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands and England), but are scattered across Russia and the former USSR, and smaller numbers in Mexico and Brazil. The Lithuanians and their ethnological kin, the Latvians may be the oldest Indo-European speaking peoples known and may resided in the Baltic states for 5,000 years.
  • Latvian diaspora - the majority of Latvians whom left Latvia in WWII reside in North America (the US and Canada), across Europe mainly in Eastern countries and the former USSR with just as many in western and Scandinavian nations, and the rest in former Latvian lands in the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus). The most Russified of the three Baltic states, Latvia struggles with the issue of national identity after one million ethnic Russians settled there since 1940.

M

  • Macedonian diaspora - formed from Macedonian refugees and economic migrants from Macedonia, to the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Italy, Greece, and many other states. There are approximately 2,000,000 Macedonians worldwide, with more than a third living outside the Republic of Macedonia.
  • Maghrebi diaspora - consists of people from the North African countries, notably Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The largest Maghrebi community outside of North Africa is in France, where it is estimated that North Africans make up the majority of the country's Muslim population. [1]
  • Mexican Americans - over 20 million people of Mexican ancestry live in the United States, ranging from recent immigrants since the 1970s to long-established Americans of Spanish or Mexican descent. The majority of Mexican Americans live especially in the American Southwest, which borders with Mexico, an area that belonged to Mexico from 1821-1848. They were fundamental to development in the states of California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in the 20th century. Los Angeles is said the second largest Mexican city, while the populace of San Antonio, Texas is over half of Mexican descent. Also known by other ethnic self-titles, like Chicanos, La Raza, Tejanos, and Californios, however are officially called Hispanics and Latinos in terms of ethnic/cultural origins, but Mexican Americans had a large mestizo or mixed European/Native American heritage.
  • Moravian Church - has a nickname "the Moravian Diaspora"[citation needed] named from a religious, not ethnic' identity, having been founded in the province of Moravia, now in the Czech Republic. During the 16th and 17th centuries, religious persecution drove the majority of church members to other countries, and by the late 18th and 19th centuries, the church had managed to grow, thrive and survive. There are hundreds of thousands of Moravian church members in small communities in Europe (the Netherlands), the Americas (the United States), Africa (South Africa), east Asia (South Korea), the Indian subcontinent (India), and Oceania (Australia). However, the vast majority of these would consider themselves natives of the country where they live - the nickname (presumably) being of only historic interest.
  • Maltese diaspora: occurred after the World War II and well into the 1960s and 70s due to the political climate at the time. Many Maltese left the island for the United Kingdom, Australia and America where sizable communities exist to this day. While not all left Malta with the intention of never returning, those that did not continued to think of Malta as their mother country. To this day, successive generations of Maltese-Australians and Maltese-Americans maintain a link with their ancestral home.

N

  • New Caledonia Kanaks - a Melanesian people native to the overseas French territory brought to Australia and New Zealand, and across Polynesia (The French territory of Tahiti) as agricultural workers in newly-founded plantations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most Kanak laborers in Australia were deported back to New Caledonia in the 1910s due to racial fears of Kanaks live among the country's white European-descent majority. Today, an estimated 30,000 Australian descendants of Kanaks live in the state of Queensland, where the main concentration of Australian plantation agriculture took place.

P

R

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  • Scottish diaspora - includes the Auld Alliance and the Scottish Wars of Independence which led countless Scots to emigrate to mainland Europe to escape persecution and hardship. The Highland clearances which depopulated large parts of the Scottish Highlands and had lasting effects on Scottish Gaelic culture; the Lowland Clearances which resulted in significant migration of Lowland Scots to Canada and the United States after 1776; the Ulster-Scots, descended primarily from Lowland Scots who settled Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century and subsequently fled to the Americas in mass numbers throughout the 18th century due to religious and cultural persecution as well as other socio-economic factors. Other Scots and Ulster Scots went to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a smaller but important community in Argentina. (See also British diaspora, above).
  • Sephardic Diaspora - in 1492 Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain expelled all persons who were not members of the Roman church specifically Jews and Christians of Jewish origin.
  • Serbian diaspora - from Serbia, former Yugoslavia. Over 12 million of Serbian descent live around the world, historically based in Serbia, nearby Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Albania, Republic of Macedonia and Romania. The largest overseas Serbian communities are in the U.S.A (See Serbian American) and Germany, as well as Austria, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Brazil and South Africa.
  • Somali diaspora - includes ethnic Somalis who live in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti, as well other parts of Africa. It also includes about 2.5 million people of Somali origin who live in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and the Middle East as refugees from the civil war. It altogether numbers between seven and nine million. This is almost the same as the population of Somalia itself.
  • South African diaspora - mainly consists of South African emigrants of European descent, especially those whose mother tongue (first language) is Afrikaans, who have emigrated as a result of the high rate of violent crime in South Africa. Another important factor is the current (2007) affirmative action policy of the governing ANC which denies many South Africans of European descent employment. South Africans of European descent whose mother tongue (first language) is English have largely emigrated to Great Britain for the same reasons. There is also a growing middle class in South Africa of African descent, many of whom are starting to emigrate for better prospects, furthering the demographic weight of all South Africans abroad. South Africans have largely settled in Great Britain, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany and Argentina.
  • South Asian diaspora - includes millions of people from India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, whose descendants live in Suriname, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, and other countries who left British India in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and millions more who have moved to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in recent decades (see Desi, British Asian, South Asian American, Indo-Canadian).
    • Indian diaspora - estimated at over 30 million, refers to people originating from India living in other parts of the world.
    • Tamil diaspora - denotes people of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil origin who have settled in many parts of rest of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Reunion, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, French Caribbean islands, Europe, Australia and North America (US and Canada).
    • Chitpavan Diaspora - Hindu converts of mixed Indian and East European (primarily Jewish) descent who migrated to India centuries ago.
    • The Roma (English terms: Gypsy, Gypsies) - a traditionally 'dispersed' people in Europe, with origins in South Asia (or perhaps, northern India) for 800-some years, are even more 'dispersed' today, following the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. (See Some names for the Roma) Over 10 million Roma live across Europe, the majority in Eastern countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia), and estimates of 250,000 Roma are known to live in North America (the US and Canada).
  • Spanish diaspora - linked to the political and economic emigrants who left Spain during the Francoist dictatorship (1930's but his death in 1975 brought democratic reform back to Spain). Notable communities were established in Argentina, Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom and across Latin America.
  • Swedish diaspora. Large numbers of Swedes (and Swedish speaking Finns from Finland also under Russian rule) migrated to the USA in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is estimated that about eight million Americans have some Swedish ancestry. Swedish Americans constitute 10% of the population of Minnesota and other large numbers settled in Wisconsin, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Large Swedish migration took place in Canada in the same time period along with other ethnic Scandinavians from Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Smaller waves of Swedish expatriates live across Europe, east Asia, Australia and Latin America, usually made up of retirees and businessmen in the late 20th century.
  • Swiss diaspora, some 9% of Swiss citizens live across the globe (mostly in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and nearby nations of France, Germany, Italy and Austria).
  • Syrian diaspora

T

  • Tibetan diaspora - began in 1959 when the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet. Most Tibetan refugees live in the United States, India (home to the exiled Dalai Lama, still the official leader of a nation no longer in existence), and Europe (over 30,000 went to Switzerland).
  • Turkish diaspora - refers to the Turkish people living outside of Turkey (most notably in Germany).

U

  • Ukrainian migration, represented by Ukrainians who left their homeland in several waves of emigration, settling mainly in the Americas (United States and Canada), but also Australia, east Asia and Europe. Also includes the tens and millions of Ukrainians who migrated from Ukraine to other parts of the former Soviet Union (mainly Russian Federation) during Soviet time.
    • Ruthenians and Carpathians, self-titles for a Slavic people from the small region of Ruthenia, encompasses easternmost Slovakia, southeast parts of Poland, northern edges of Hungary and westernmost Ukraine, had preserved a unique ethnocultural identity, but lacked an independent country of their own for almost a millennia. In the late 19th century and again between World Wars I and II, over a million Ruthenians fled their homeland and settled across Western Europe (France, Germany and Austria), North America (the U.S. and Canada) and the USSR (Russia), but lesser numbers settled in East Asia (China), the Middle East (Turkey), South America (Brazil) and Australia in the late 20th century.

Z

Various

  • Various ethnic minorities from areas under Russian and Soviet control following the Russian Revolution, continuing through the mass forced-resettlements under Stalin.
  • Various groups fled in large numbers from areas under Axis control during World War II, or after the border changes following the war, and formed their own diasporas.
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