Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Most of the contributions in international relations regarding the theme diasporas have focused in defining the negative or positive influence they have on Foreign Policy decisions, regarding them either as exemplary transnational actors or as the incarnation of a 'fifth coloumn'. Few authors question the term itself, and most of those who have tried usually fell into the false hope of defining it as a 'social form' through various numbers of characteristics. Most of these approaches take an essentialist stance and are unable to seize the processes, the discourses and social practices that are behind the word. We will argue that diaspora has to be understood as a signifier, a political motto, that serves particular causes in particular times and places. Diaspora is not malign or benign, diaspora is a word to do things, a speech act at the national, transnational or international level. Studying diaspora in international politics should therefore be the study of who says diaspora and the reasons why.