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Some Helpful Resources for Studying Diasporic Issues

Author: J. D. Payne
Date: 29.08.2010
Category: Diaspora, Globalization, Unreached People Groups

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I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a few of the helpful resources that I have recently discovered in my work in the area of diaspora missiology. While there are some excellent evangelical writings on this topic, they are few in number. For few Evangelicals are thinking and writing in the area of this category of missiology, and even fewer Evangelicals are aware of the Great Commission opportunities that global migrations set before the Church. Therefore, some of the best resources on the topic of migration studies come from writers who do not write with the Great Commission in mind. It is my hope that this matter will change. Until that day arrives, Evangelicals are wise to mine (with discernment) the volumes of books and articles sitting in libraries related to global migrations.

I have listed below a few of the outstanding works available related to diasporic issues that are written from outside the perspective of the Church. Also, unfortunately, some of these books are expensive, so consult your local public or college library. My top recommendation, if you only could read one, would be: Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller, Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, 4th ed. (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009).

I would be interested in knowing what resources you have found to be helpful. Here are mine:

Uma A. Segal, Doreen Elliott, and Nazneen S. Mayadas, eds., Immigration Worldwide: Policies, Practices, and Trends (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller, Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, 4th ed. (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009).
Khalid Koser, ed., New African Diasporas (UK and NY: Routledge, 2007).
Maura I. Toro-Morn and Marixsa Alicea, eds., Migration and Immigration: A Global View (Westport, CT and London, UK: Greenwood Press, 2004).
Alejandro Portes and Josh DeWind, eds., Rethinking Migration: New Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007).
Matthew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen, eds., Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, 3 Volumes (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005).
Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard, eds., Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, 2 Volumes (New York: KluwerAcademic-Plenum Publishers, 2004).

Portions of this post came from my blog. You can read the full post HERE and also find a link to my review of Castle and Miller, The Age of Migration.

Keywords: diaspora missiology, migration, books

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: Reply Flag 0 Thumbs Up Thumbs Down ksatterlee (0)
United States

Ruth Padilla deBorst gave a great talk at Urbana this past year regarding our responsibility to migrants and diaspora peoples. I would check it out, and while it isn’t a book, could be a great link to post.

Kevin

09.09.2010

: Reply Flag 0 Thumbs Up Thumbs Down Pete_Houston (6)
South Africa

I must confess I have been totally ignorant about Diaspora issues (as opposed to refugee issues) until fairly recently. I had my eyes opened when I moved to Polokwane and met our Indian community from Southern India in our church.

Coming from KwaZulu Natal I knew of earlier movements of the Indian Diaspora. In South Africa the major part of the Indian community arrived between 1860 and 1911 as indentured farm labour. They served as field hands and mill operatives in the sugar plantations and other agricultural sectors of Natal (now called KwaZulu Natal). Most of the initial migrants were drawn from what is today Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with some from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Ref. High Commission of India to South Africa). A second movement of Indians came after 1880. They were nicknamed the “passenger Indians” because they paid their fares as passengers on board steamships bound for South Africa. This was the community of traders mainly from Gujarat.

But what I’ve picked up talking to members of my church is that there is also a third smaller movement happening now of professionals, especially teachers and doctors, from Kerala in the south of India. They maintain a strong sense of connection to other families throughout South Africa who belong to the same Indian church denomination, for example, the Mar Thoma church. In fact, the Mar Thoma church has two priests based in South Africa whose job it is to travel around visiting their people scattered as they are in various places. (They spend three years here and then move back to India, to be replaced by the next priest.)

Sorry if this background bores you! The point is that I was blind to this recent Indian Diaspora until I met someone from it... Now that I know what to look for I see evidence of it everywhere.

Hence I think your conversation is an important one! You can wake us up to what is in our midst already. What else am I not seeing because I don’t know to look for it?

29.08.2010

: Reply Flag 0 Thumbs Up Thumbs Down jpayne (1)
United States
@ Pete_Houston:
Thank you, Pete, for sharing your experience. This is very helpful. -- J. D.

30.08.2010