My recent Race in Space post included a brief discussion of diasporas, a topic that science fiction and fantasy deal with in tremendously interesting ways.  I subsequently came across an article by Michael Fullilove of Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy reminding me of the broader implications of diaspora populations and their increasing importance in a globalized world:

Diasporas – communities that live outside, but maintain links with, their homelands – have been with the world at least since the Jews were exiled to Babylonia. But in recent years they have become larger, thicker and stronger…
Diasporans are becoming more interested in their origins and organising themselves more effectively; homelands are revising their opinions of their diasporas and stepping up their engagement efforts; meanwhile, host countries are worrying about fifth columns and foreign lobbies.
This trend is the result of five factors, all of them connected with globalisation: the growth in international migration; the revolution in transport and communications technology, which is quickening the pace of diasporans’ interactions with their homelands; a reaction against global homogenised culture; the end of the cold war, which increased the salience of ethnicity and nationalism and created new space in which diasporas can operate; and policy changes by national governments on issues such as dual citizenship, which license people to lead transnational lives.

Fullilove’s article is a summary of a longer paper available in full here.  An interesting area of research, and a very interesting policy institute, funded thanks to a gift from Frank Lowy of Westfield mall fame.