Les diasporas ou l'expérience de l'unité dans la diversité

Abstract

Is the paradigm of the diaspora capable of accounting for the changing pattern of human migrations today? Diasporas lie at the heart of a dialectical contrast between the dispersion of migrants in pluralist societies on the one hand, and maintaining material and spiritual ties with "home" on the other hand. The soæcial sciences have long taken a particular interest in the paradigm of diversity. Opposing multiculm to the "sociology of integration" has locked the debate into false alternatives. The experience of diasporas, as in the Jewish example, where shared references remain even as dispersion tends towards the infinite, shows that migratory patterns evolve at the fringes of preconceived identities.