Week1_Colleen Cruz_ASA114

Wanni Anderson, Robert Lee, and Caroline Valverde provide a foundation for the concept of diaspora from its causes to how it manifests for different people groups within their books. Anderson and Lee discuss the movement of people through displacement or immigration within important contexts of history. This sets the scene for how it affects their lived experiences in their new place of settlement. Anderson and Lee explain ideas like transnationalism which is essential in the diasporic experience because it highlights the persisting network to their homeland while creating “multiple sites of ‘home’” abroad (p. 9). Valverde contextualizes these concepts with the Vietnamese-American experience. Vietnamese-Americans faced racial discrimination and pressure to assimilate like many groups, however their relationship to communism complicated their experience (Valverde, p. 12). This is important to highlight because it demonstrates that no two groups will experience diaspora in the same way. These people groups will experience different struggles depending on political, social, economic and cultural forces. This makes diaspora a complicated yet essential concept in understanding migration and the settlement of people.
Question: With rising tensions between Iran and the United States, how will that affect Iranian migration? Can we expect to see a diaspora?

Photo from
https://www.groundswell.nyc/programs/special-initiatives/recovery-diaspora

This photo is a beautiful representation of holding onto one's cultural roots (dress, jewelry) while also integrating parts of their new home (the train, skyscrapers, modern homes). 



Works Cited:
Anderson, W. W., Lee, R., & Lee, R. G. (Eds.). (2005). Displacements and diasporas : Asians in the americas / edited by wanni w. anderson, robert g. lee. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Valverde, K. (2012). Transnationalizing Viet Nam : Community, culture, and politics in the diaspora (Asian American history and culture). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

https://www.groundswell.nyc/programs/special-initiatives/recovery-diaspora