Introduction - Diasporas and Transportation of Homeland Conflicts: Inter-group Dynamics and Host Country Responses

In 2022, violent clashes occurred between groups of Hindu and Muslim men in Leicester. This was not a one-off incident as similar riots have happened in the past in other British cities such as Bradford. Dozens of participants were arrested as a result of these violent altercations and police investigations continue up to this day (Allen, 2022). It has been reported that there were violent assaults as well as attacks on religious symbols by the two groups which included burning flags or damaging mosques and temples as they symbolise each community’s sacred places (Murray, Khan and Rajeev, 2022). Another recent altercation between two diaspora groups occurred in Paris when an allegedly far-right extremist attacked a mostly Kurdish populated area and killed three Kurdish diaspora members who were actively engaged in the Kurdish movement. The diaspora protests turned violent when the demonstration was interrupted by Turkish ultranationalist men who provoked the crowd by showing Grey Wolf signs, which represents a specific nationalist group in Turkey (Broomfield, 2022). Grey Wolves had been banned in France in the previous year, again with allegations of perpetrating violence against Armenian diaspora members during the events that unfolded in the course of the Nagorno Karabakh war (MacDonald, 2020). These incidents are just a few examples that testify how political developments in the homeland still continue to have an impact on inter-group relations among diaspora communities, who live far from their country of origin and who are socialised and politicised in a different environment compared to their peers who are still in the homeland. These incidents happened in countries that have democratic institutions and provide opportunity structures to diaspora groups for mobilisation and action. Yet, their citizenship regimes and migrant incorporation strategies are strikingly different. Although these are important factors that shape diasporas’ repertoires of action and agenda, we see an increasing number of inter-diaspora tensions occurring around the globe in different shapes and forms. Any conflict situation, whether active or dormant, whether low or high scale, has an impact on how transnational communities develop diasporic identities and interact with each other in different settings.