Divergent Heterogeneities in Iranian Immigration: A Case Study of Iranian Diaspora and Its Semantic and Theoretical Limitations

Despite its widespread use as an equivalent for immigrant populations, the term diaspora remains semantically and theoretically ambiguous. This study hypothesizes that the term diaspora fails to represent Iranian immigration and its divergent heterogeneities. Discussing theoretical approaches to diaspora, the characteristics of Iranian immigration, and the findings of interviews with forty young Iranian immigrants living in France, the present study attempts to offer a more suitable alternative to the term diaspora. It will be revealed that the heterogeneity of Iranian immigration in causes, conception of immigration experience, as well as disinclination to create a unified community in host countries, leads Iranians living outside their country to form small and scattered clusters and live on isolated islands. The term proposed to be used in lieu of diaspora is “archipelago ethnicity”, which shows both the heterogeneity and divergence in Iranian immigration in general and represents the only connection between the scattered and isolated islands, i.e., being Iranian.