Originally, the term diaspora (from the Greek for dispersal) referred only to the expulsion of the Jews in 586 BC. In recent years, the term has been used to refer to any people forced to leave their homelands and dispersed throughout other parts of the world; in other words, ethnic refugees. The best known field of modern diaspora studies is arguably the [history of the African diaspora]?, which focuses on the movements and culture of Africans taken into slavery and their descendants throughout the world. Other fields gaining recognition are the [history of the Irish diaspora]? and the [Southeast Asian diaspora]?. The line between refugee movement and actual Diaspora is thin; however, it can be argued that the first is a regular result of people forced by circumstance (war, famine, drought, repressive governments) to flee thier homes, while the latter generally revolves arounds the forcible removal (usually because of ethnic, national, or religious differences) of a group of people from their homes.
The plight of the Heimatvertriebene
At the end of the Second World War, as many as 9 million ethnic Germans were expelled from their homes beyond the boundaries set at Potsdam and Versialles. No longer citizens of the German Empire and its successor governments and faced with the prospect of living under Communist rule, many of these people left their homes voluntarily. However, it can be argued that the vast majority were forcibly expelled, less by use of weapons than by the fact that their homes and lands were to be "restored" to their previous inhabitants.
The return to their German homes was difficult in many senses. First and foremost was the fact that all of Europe was teeming with refugees. The aid available to refugees could never meet the existing needs. Moreover, it is likely that the majority of the aid available went to the victims of the Nazis, rather than to those who, although innocent, belonged to the losing side. Another difficulty faced by the German refugees was the fact that some of the families had lived outside of Germany proper for over a century. They had neither family nor lands in German to which they could return.
As many as 2 million people may have died or remained to this day separated from their families as a result of their expulsion from their homes.
See also, Refugee?
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