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.