List of diasporas

History provides us with many examples of notable diasporas.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Note: the list below is not definitive, and includes groups that have not been given significant historical attention. Whether the migration of some of the groups listed fulfills the conditions required to be considered a diaspora may be open for debate.

A

• Afghan people - fled their country throughout the 20th century and the long civil wars, especially to nearby Pakistan, India and Iran. Since 1980, over half a million Afghans migrated to Europe (many to Great Britain and Germany), while a quarter a million went to North America (the U.S. and Canada), and less than 50,000 settled in Australia. There are around 25.000 people of Afghan descent living in Hamburg.
• The African diaspora - Sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants.See Afro-Brazilian for blacks in Brazil, African Americans, African Canadians, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Europeans and Afro-Latin Americans. Africans from the Magreb are usually counted differently.
• Albanians - 3.5 million live in Albania, with estimated 8,5 million world total (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, the United States and Canada). The largest concentration of Albanians outside the country is in neighbouring Kosovo. Other Albanian enclaves are in coastal Croatia, southern Serbia, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another large area of ethnic Albanians, known as the Arbereshe lived in southern Italy, especially in regions of Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Napoli, Puglia and Sicily for over eight centuries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, repeated large waves of Albanian emigration took place as Albanians moved to northern and Western Europe (i.e. France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.), the former Soviet Union, North America (the U.S. - see Albanian American and Canada with smaller numbers in Mexico), Australia and across Asia (the former Ottoman Empire in the Middle East).
• Arab diaspora - around 30 million Arabs have left the Arab world escaping hotspots, and conflicts areas, those who have migrated from the Arab World, now reside in Western Europe, the Americas (e.g. Detroit has the largest Arab-American community), Australia and elsewhere. (See especially Lebanese and Syrians).
• Argentine diaspora - People from Argentina known as Argentines whom live overseas in communities across western Europe (esp. Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the U.K.), North America (the U.S., Canada and Mexico) and elsewhere (i.e. Australia), mainly are political refugees from the military junta in the late 1970s and 1980s, (see also Argentine Americans).
• Armenian diaspora - Armenians living in their ancient homeland, which had been controlled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries, fled persecution, massacres and genocide during several periods of forced emigration, from the 1880s to the 1920s. Many Armenians settled in the United States a majority of whom live in the state of California (see Armenian Americans), France, Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon, Russia and Syria.
• Assyrians - a pre-Arab Semitic Christian population of the Middle East (originally they lived in Syria, as well in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey). In the 20th century, millions of Assyrians left the Middle East due to ongoing ethnic, political and religious persecution. Assyrian communities flourish in the United States, Canada, throughout Europe, Brazil, Africa, India, China, Japan and Australia.
• Australian diaspora - About 750,000 Australian expatriates live outside of Australia, mostly business executives and retirees seeking a new place to live. There are large Australian communities in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and North America; and smaller groups in Europe, Africa (i.e. South Africa), the Middle East (i.e. the United Arab Emirates), east and south Asia (i.e. Thailand and Papua New Guinea), and Latin America (i.e. Costa Rica and Argentina).

B

• Basque diaspora - Basques who left the Basque Country in northern Spain and southwest France, usually to the Americas (esp. the western U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Chile) for economic or political reasons. There are also Basque Catholic missionaries across the world, as well Basque fishermen in Canada (Newfoundland), Northern Europe, East Asia, Australia and Oceania.
• Bosnian diaspora - grew substantially during the Bosnian war. It mainly consists of Bosniaks but also out of Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. Many Bosnians live in the USA, mostly in large cities like Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles, California; and many live in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.
• British diaspora - During the last four hundred years millions of English, Scots, Irish, and Welsh have migrated all over the world, for a great variety of reasons, especially to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere (i.e. Chile and Argentina). That explains the use of the English language and the large number of British names in the places mentioned.
• Bulgarian diaspora - an estimated one million ethnic Bulgarians are dispersed around the world, the majority in Europe such as in neighboring nations of Romania, Greece, Serbia, Turkey and the Republic of Macedonia. About 200,000 in the U.S., with 50,000 others in Canada and 20,000 in Mexico. Other large Bulgarian diaspora communities are in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia and the UK, and smaller numbers are found in Argentina and Australia.

C

• The Cape Verdean diaspora refers to historical emigration from Cape Verde. Today, more Cape Verdeans live abroad than in Cape Verde itself. Diaspora communities include those in the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain and Canada.
• Chechens - fled Chechnya during the 1990s insurrection against Russia. The majority of displaced Chechens fled to Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Republic of Georgia, but tens of thousands of Chechen refugees migrated to Europe, North America and across the Middle East. Previous waves of migration took Chechens to Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in 1820 or 1890.
• Cherokees - a Native American tribe indigenous to the Southeastern United States, whose official tribal organization is Cherokee Nation based in Oklahoma, United States, which has 800,000 members as of 2005. However, anthropological and genetic experts in Native American studies have argued that there could be over one million more Cherokee descendants scattered across North America (the largest number in California). The beginnings of the Cherokee diaspora was from their forced removal in the Trail of Tears. Later, thousands of "Americanized" Cherokee farmers were forced to settle across the Americas (i.e. Canada, Mexico, Cuba and South America) as the result of the Dawes Act. In the 20th century, many Cherokees served in the U.S. Army during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. These soldiers left some descendants by intermarriage with "war brides" in Europe and east Asia. Some Cherokees and other American Indians might emigrated to Europe and elsewhere through the British and Spanish empires.
• Chilean diaspora - A small but widespread community, mostly of political refugees who fled the Augusto Pinochet regime after the 1973 coup. Overseas Chilean communities are in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and the U.S., but smaller communities are found in Belgium, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. (see also Chilean Americans). During the Pinochet era, many refugees moved to East Germany when it was a communist country before reunification with Germany in 1990.
• Chinese diaspora - number over 50 million worldwide. The largest overseas Chinese communities are in Asia. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar (in descending order of ethnic Chinese population size) have at least 1 million ethnic Chinese each. Two countries outside Asia, namely the United States (esp. States of California, Hawaii, New York and Washington State) and Canada (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) have populations over 1 million in size. Other sizable communities may be found in Japan, Cambodia, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, each with over 100,000 ethnic Chinese.
• Circassians - fled Circassia, Kabardey, Cherkes, Adigey Republics and Shapsug Area in 1864. Exiled 90% of Circassians are by Russian Colonialists to Ottoman Empire or imperial Turkey. The Circassian Diaspora is over four million worldwide, with large Circassian communities in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Romania, Syria, Russia as well the former USSR, over 100,000 Circassians in North America (the United States and Canada), and over 10,000 Circassians in Australia.
• Colombian diaspora - over five million Colombians, either displaced by war, left for economic opportunity, and placed in exile to avoid political persecution. The Colombian diaspora lives across the Americas (i.e. Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and South American nations, especially Venezuela), and across Europe (i.e. Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom). The largest overseas Colombian population is the U.S. where they are over 2 million Colombian Americans, one of the largest Latino nationalities in the country.
• Congolese diaspora found across the continent of Africa, their home countries divided by the Kongo River are the Republic of Congo to the north and the Democratic Republic of Congo formerly Zaire to the south. Smaller Congolese communities developed in South Africa, Nigeria and Western Europe.
• Cornish people migrated from Cornwall to other parts of England and countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. The diaspora was caused by a number of factors, but due mainly to economic reasons and the lack of jobs in the 18th and 19th centuries when many Cornish people, or “Cousin Jacks” as they were known, migrated to various parts of the world in search of a better life. (see also Cornish emigration).
• Crimean Tatar diaspora - formed after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by Russia, in 1783.
• Croatian diaspora - Largest number of Croatians living outside Europe are in the U.S., Chile, Canada, Australia, Peru, Brazil and Argentina.
• Cuban diaspora - the exodus of over one million Cubans (the largest community is in Miami, Florida, United States) following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. (See also Cuban Americans).

D

• Danish people a.k.a. Danes who originate in the small Nordic country of Denmark. They have historically migrated all over Europe, and about a million Danish emigrants in the last two centuries to all the world's six continents. An example of Danish culture overseas is in Solvang, California in the USA.
• Dutch diaspora - the Dutch originally came from the Low Countries and northern France. Millions of Dutch descendants live in the United States (Dutch American), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India (Sri Lanka), Africa (the Congo when it was the Belgian Congo until 1960), the Caribbean (Aruba and Netherlands Antilles which is officially Dutch territory), and South America (Suriname formerly was Dutch until independence in 1975), but Dutch descendants are found in Brazil and Argentina. The four million white (European) Afrikaaners of South Africa are descendants of Dutch, French Huguenot and German settlers brought over to the colonial Dutch East India company in the 16th century (see South African diaspora).
  • Flemings, a subgroup of Dutch/Low German speaking people of the country of Belgium, about 50-55% of the country's population speaks Flemish, one of Belgium's two major and three official languages. Flemings migrated to all the six continents of the world, sometimes in droves to nearby countries of France and the Netherlands, other European nations of the UK, Germany and Sweden, and they founded new settlements. The Azores, a Portuguese territory was once called the Islas de las Flamandes (the Fleming Islands) in the 16th century. The West Flemish population in the Nord département of France struggle to preserve their endangered language.
  • Frisians, an ethnic group related to the Dutch live in the Frieslands on the northern half of the Netherlands, along with northwestern Germany and southernmost Denmark. The Frisians have their own language, history and customs. Frisians are thought to date back 5,000 years, migrated to the Rhine delta by the North Sea and were successful in draining out the marshes to make it inhabitable to establish cities and farmland. Frisians also migrated worldwide, a number of them were employed in the oceanic fishing markets.

E

• Ecuadorian diaspora - People from Ecuador who reside in countries across the Americas (i.e. the U.S., see Ecuadorian Americans, also in Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil), Europe (esp. Spain and Italy, with some in France and elsewhere), and smaller numbers in Japan and Australia.
• Egyptian Copts, members of the Coptic Christian Church based in Egypt for about 2,000 years. Copts are thought to be connected with cultures and peoples of Ancient Egypt, then the religion was displaced by the arrival of Islam 1,400 yrs. ago. About 3 million Coptic Christians live around the world, the largest numbers are in North America and Australia; and Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway and Sweden in Europe.
• Estonians - Over 5 million known ethnic Estonians worldwide, 1.3 million live in Estonia. The decrease of population was a result of the Soviet annexation of 1940/1944 and the German occupation of 1941-1944, both having led to massive deportations across the former USSR (many went to Siberia). Estonian refugees went to the USA, followed by Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands. Smaller numbers went to China, Japan, Australia and Mexico. About 3.5 million Estonians live outside their homeland. It may include sub-groups like Chudes, Livonians, Setos and Võros in neighboring lands of (western) Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

F

• Fiji Indian diaspora - people of Indian origin left Fiji following the racially inspired coups of 1987 and 2000 to settle primarily in Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada. Smaller numbers have settled in England and other Pacific islands.
• Filipino diaspora left the Philippines for Japan, Hong Kong (China), Southeast Asia, Australia, Guam and Northern Marianas, the United States (esp. Hawaii and in states of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska - see Filipino Americans), Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and the Middle East (the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar). Overseas workers have their own political party in the Philippine Congress.
• French diaspora - Over 100 million French-speaking and ethnic French people in the world, about 55 million in Metropolitan France in Europe, 3 million in Belgium known as the Walloons, 3 million in western cantons of Switzerland and 2 million others in adjacent areas of Luxembourg, the kingdoms of Andorra and Monaco, and parts of western Italy, southwest Germany and northern Spain. This includes the remnants of French 'colons' in formerly French territories of North Africa the independent nations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia and in Southeast Asia (formerly French Indochina) now independent nations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and millions of those of French ancestry in North America (i.e. a major contributor of settlement in the U.S. and 8 million French-Canadians in Canada), South America (ethnic descendant communities like in Argentina), Africa (the Afrikaaners of Dutch and French origins in South Africa) and Oceania (i.e. New Caledonia and French Polynesia).
  • French Canadian diaspora - includes hundreds of thousands of people who left Quebec for the United States (most went to New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont), as well as Ontario and Western Canada, between about 1840 and 1930. In addition, since the 1970s Florida and other portions of the Southeastern United States have had sizable French-Canadian communities, consisting chiefly of retired senior citizens.
  • The Acadian diaspora - the Great Expulsion (Grand Dérangement) occurred when the British expelled about 10,000 Acadians (over three-fourths of the Acadian population of Nova Scotia) between 1755 and 1764. The British split the Acadians between different colonies to impose assimilation. Most of the French-speaking Acadians resettled in the then French colony of Louisiana, now a state of the US where the "Cajuns" influenced the ethnological background of Louisiana and its' cultural center of New Orleans, along with high admixture with Anglo-American, African, Spanish and other ethnicities introducing Jazz music and Creole cooking.
  • Walloons, a sub-group of French-speaking peoples in the southern half of Belgium and Luxembourg. In Belgium, due to Walloon culture, the French language was historically official, then the Flemish language and German in the easternmost parts are given co-official status. Many Walloon miners, factory workers and farmers migrated to France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK; and other French and Dutch/Belgian colonial lands (i.e. Zaire).

G

• Galicians - left their country for mainly economic reasons to other areas of Spain, and to the Americas (esp. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the United States and Venezuela) and later, Western Europe (Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) in the 1950s and 1960s. Galicians also went to Africa, Australia, New Zealand and east Asia: China, Japan and the Philippines which was a former Spanish colony from 1540 to 1898.
• German diaspora - an estimated 100 million ethnic Germans originally from the historic German-speaking homeland of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and includes parts of Belgium (see the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France (esp. the region of Alsace), Gottschee County of Slovenia, Italy (the Südtirol), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and the Ukraine. In World War II, the Soviets expelled over 10 million ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) and former German provinces which were annexed by Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the former USSR (Belarus). In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, millions of Germans left German lands especially to the Americas (i.e. the United States-see German American, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela). Large numbers also migrated to Australia, where they now form the fourth largest ethnic group, with nearly 750,000 people claiming German descent. Other smaller German communities in Africa or the Middle East (i.e. Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania), east Asia/Oceania (i.e. China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand), and across the former Soviet Union (i.e. Kazakhstan).
  • Mennonites - Christians rooted in the 16th and 17th century Anabaptist movement of the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe. Various groups of Mennonites migrated to the North America (i.e. USA, Canada mainly in Saskatchewan and northern Mexico), eastern Europe and Asia (including Israel and Egypt in Africa). There are Mennonite settlements in Central and South America (esp. in the Gran Chaco, Paraguay) and over a million Mennonite adherents worldwide.
  • Pennsylvania Dutch a corrupted term of "Pennsedeutsch" in Pennsylvania, USA, where a large (in demographic terms) German American cultural presence exists to this day. The Pennsylvania German language is decreasing in use, but has a history in the state going back 350 years.
  • Barossa German spoken by a colony of German-Australians in the Barossa valley, South Australia, Australia.
• Gerashi diasporas - The people of Gerashi origin (of Iran) who have migrated to the Arab States of the southern Persian Gulf in search of necessities and basic human rights. It has continued since the early 20th century bombing of the city by Reza Shah and the federal forces.
• Greek diaspora - refers to any ethnic Greek populations living outside the borders of Greece and Cyprus as a result of modern or ancient migrations. There is a Department of Diaspora Affairs in the Greek government. An estimated three million Greeks live in North America (the United States and Canada), Africa, Australia (especially Melbourne, the third largest 'Greek' city), across Europe - the largest groups being established in Germany, Sweden and Belgium - and the Middle East. Ancient Greek communities in what is now Turkey were destroyed due to the fallout from World War I and persecution. A Greek community remains in Istanbul according to the terms of the Lausanne treaty, but persecution in the 1950s and 60s led most to flee. Only a small community (Pontic Greeks) remain in Turkey. A similarly ancient community of Greeks in Alexandria and Cairo was ordered to leave Egypt in the 1960s under Nasser's nationalisation programme. In addition, many Greek-speaking Cypriots migrated to Britain in the 20th century.

H

• Haitian diaspora - many white and mixed race Haitians migrated to Cuba and then New Orleans, Louisiana after the Haitian Revolution. More recently, many black Haitians have migrated to the United States and Canada. Others live in the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and French Guiana. There are also smaller numbers in Belgium, France, Spain, and Venezuela.
• Hapa - The modern term for mixed-race persons of Asian-Americans of white/Caucasian and Native Hawaiian ancestry. (see also Multiracial American) They tend to live across the USA and western Canada, due to historic migration of Hawaiians into North America.
• Hispanics or Latinos in the USA are sometimes referred to as a newly developed "diaspora" or dispersions of immigrant peoples from Latin America into the United States, and ethnic groups continued their cultural distinction, such as Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican people, Cuban-Americans, etc.
• Hongkonger diaspora - lives in communities in cities such as London, UK; Toronto, Canada; California, USA; and Sydney, Australia. See Hongcouver the largest Hongkonger community in Vancouver, British Columbia and yacht people.
• Hungarian diaspora - lives in numerous communities across Europe, former USSR, North America and Australia. Historic Hungary extended into parts of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. For over 300 years, either they migrated west for economic opportunities or as political refugees, such as the failed Hungarian revolution of 1956 against the Communist government, when over 200,000 Hungarians fled the country for asylum in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Brazil.

I

• Icelandic diaspora: at an estimated number of 150,000, half of which are in Canada. See Icelanders.
• Inuit people, their homeland spans across 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of northern most reaches of North America along the Arctic Ocean. About 800,000 Inuit (a.k.a. "Eskimos") live in four countries: The U.S. (Alaska), Canada (Nunavut is a territorial government established in 1999), Greenland (the "Greenlandic" people, the majority are of Inuit and Danish-European ancestry), self-ruling territory of Denmark, and about 3,000 in the Chukchi Peninsula, Russia facing the Bering Strait.
• Indian Diaspora: major populations in Mauritius (where they form the majority of the population), Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji, Malaysia, South Africa and Réunion, primarily from 19th century indentured workers. Recent immigration to United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Also in neighbouring Nepal.
• Indochinese diaspora - includes the refugees from the numerous wars that took place in Southeast Asia, such as World War II and the Vietnam War.
  • The Vietnamese diaspora - fled communist rule in Vietnam following their victory in the Vietnam War (see South Vietnam) went to the United States (see Vietnamese Americans), the migration peaked in the 1980s and 1990s (esp. the largest Vietnamese-American community is in Orange County, California). The Vietnamese also went to Canada, France (and overseas territories), Germany (also the Vietnamese guest workers in the former Communist East Germany), Italy, the Middle East, Australia, and other Asian countries (most went to Hong Kong, when it was a British colony, before the handover to the People's Republic of China in 1997, and Macau, which was under Portuguese rule until the handover to the People's Republic of China in 1999).
  • The wave of Hmong tribes from Laos, Laotians, Cambodians and Thai refugees and economic immigrants (Vietnamese who arrived since 1990) arrived in North America (i.e. the US and Canada), Europe (esp. France), across Asia (most went to Thailand), Oceania (Australia) and South America (concentrated in French Guiana).
  • Some millions of Indochinese were of ethnic Chinese descent, the majority of Chinese/Sino-Vietnamese from Vietnam, Chinese-Cambodians of Cambodia and Thai-Chinese of Thailand had emigrated in the late 20th century.
• Indonesian diaspora - refers to any ethnic in Indonesia living outside of their homeland, the majority of Indonesian expatriates live in the U.S., Japan, the U.A.E., Australia, and the Netherlands, esp. South Moluccans, a predominantly Christian ethnic group found asylum and religious freedom by the thousands in Holland since the 1950s.
  • Minangkabau diaspora - two of three Minangkabau people live in diaspora. Matrilineal system indirectly caused the diaspora in Minangkabau community. Nowadays, over a million Minangkabau people living outside of Indonesia, mainly in Malaysia and Singapore, but they recently joined the Indonesian emigration to Australia, China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.
  • Javanese diaspora - occurred in the Dutch colonial era. Vast numbers of Javanese send to other of Dutch colony as coulies. Most of them send to Suriname, New Caledonia, and East Sumatra, but others live in Europe, North America, the Middle East, South Africa and Australia.
  • Indo diaspora - During and after the Indonesian National Revolution, which followed the World War II, (1945–1965) around 300.000 people, pre-dominantly Indos, left Indonesia to go to the Netherlands. This migration was called repatriation. The majority of this group had never set foot in the Netherlands before.
• Iraqi diaspora - Refugees from Iraq have increased in number since the US-led invasion into Iraq in March 2003. As of November 4, 2006, the UNHCR estimated that 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month. There are over 200,000 Iraqi refugees said to resided in Egypt and 100,000 more in the Persian Gulf states.The main destinations for Iraqi immigration in the 2000s are the UK, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Australia and South America (i.e. Brazil).
• Irish diaspora - consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States (see Irish Americans), the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, and nations of the Caribbean and continental Europe, where small but vibrant Irish communities continue to exist. The diaspora contains over 80 million people and it is the result of mass migration from Ireland, due to past famines and political oppression. The term first came widely into use in Ireland in the 1990s when the then-President of Ireland, Mary Robinson began using it to describe all those of Irish descent. Notable people of the global Irish diaspora are United States presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins.
• Italian diaspora - occurred between 1870 and 1920 due to the economic crises on the peninsula, reaching the number of 10 million emigrants. Vast numbers of Italians (Sicilians, people from Veneto and other depressed areas) emigrated to Brazil, Argentina (an estimated one-third to half of Argentinans are of Italian descent) , the United States (see Italian Americans), Canada (see Italian Canadians), Australia (see Italian Australians), and elsewhere in the Americas (i.e. Chile, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela), Europe (i.e. the UK, Malta, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden), smaller numbers of Italians went to South Africa and Israel (Italian Jews), and small Italian expatriate communities once thrived until the mid 20th century in Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). See also Sicily and Sicilian.
  • Istrian exodus- The real diaspora of the 20th century came after the end of World War II, with 350,000 Italians leaving their homeland on the eastern front after the capture of Istria and Dalmatia by the Yugoslavs. Most of them were relocated in Italy itself; a lower percentage flew overseas (the racer Mario Andretti for example).

J

• Jaffnese/Ceylonese Diaspora - refers to the diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamils, especially those post-1983 due to the civil conflict in Sri Lanka. This has created huge Tamil communities in countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries. In many ways, the Jaffnese Diaspora is compared to the Jewish Diaspora, both historically, socially and economically. It is a subset of the greater Tamil Diaspora.
• Jamaican diaspora - An estimated 3 million Jamaicans live outside the island country of Jamaica, an English-speaking majority African descendant country in the Caribbean. The main destinations for Jamaican immigration in the 20th century are the U.S., Great Britain and Canada. But, Jamaican immigration across the Caribbean, to Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, and even Africa are well noted. Jamaicans living aboard, such as Bob Marley introduced the music form of reggae to the international music market in the 1970s.
• Japanese diaspora - Brazil (see Japanese Brazilian), the United States (see Japanese Americans), Canada (See Japanese Canadian) and the Philippines (see Japanese Filipinos), as well sizable communities in Peru (see Japanese Peruvian), Argentina (see Asian Argentine), Chile and Ecuador, and smaller numbers of Japanese in Australia, New Zealand, Cuba and Mexico are the countries with the highest numbers of Japanese people outside Japan. The largest community of ethnic Japanese is in Hawaii where they make up a quarter of the state's population. However, there are smaller Japanese communities around the world that developed in the late 20th century such as throughout western Europe, eastern Russia and South Africa. The Japanese population used to have nicknames to indicate generational levels: "Issei"-foreign born parents, next is "Nisei"-1st generation born outside Japan or children, and "Sansei"-2nd generation born outside Japan or grandchildren.
  • Okinawans - An Asian people closely related to the Japanese in terms of culture and language, from the island of Okinawa, politically part of Japan since 1878. After WWII, the U.S. briefly ruled Okinawa from 1945 to its' return to Japanese rule in 1972. Since then, tens of thousands of Okinawans settled in the U.S. and in the 1960s, massive settlement programs of Okinawan farmers into Latin America, the majority in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.
• Jewish diaspora - in its historical use, refers to the period between the Roman invasion and subsequent occupation of Land of Israel beginning AD 70, to the establishment of Israel in 1948. In modern use, the 'Diaspora' refers to Jews living outside of the Jewish state of Israel today. Not all Jews, though, regard themselves as part of a diaspora community.
  • Jewish groups and histories greatly vary from one another in each country, notably large communities represented in the global Jewish diaspora: Polish, French, German, Russian, Italian, British, Dutch, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, Arabian (from the Middle East), Moroccan, Egyptian (see also Mizrahi), Ethiopian (the Falasha), Iranian, Indian, a small Chinese Jewish group, American - the world's largest in this current time, Canadian, Hispanic, South African and Jewish Australians.
  • Sephardic Diaspora - in 1492 Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain expelled all persons who were not members of the Roman church specifically Jews and Christians of Jewish origin. The Sephardi resettled across Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, but others went to Germany and the Netherlands (where they merged with the local Ashkenazi), and some went to Britain, North and South America, and other colonies of the British and Spanish empires by the late 16th century.
  • Jewish return to the Land of Israel began massively since the end of the Nineteenth century. By 1947, there were around 600,000 Jews in Palestine. In 1948, the State of Israel was established.

K

• Khmer people - The main ethnic group of Cambodia have historically emigrated in the 18th, 19th and esp. 20th centuries. The largest Cambodian communities are in the USA, Canada, France, Thailand, Vietnam, China (with Hong Kong), Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Arabia (i.e. the U.A.E).
• Korean diaspora - a people from the Korean peninsula located between China and Japan. The first wave of Korean diaspora was during the Japanese colonial occupation (1910–1945), the peace treaty division of the Korean peninsula into two republics, the Korean War (1950–53) produced a wave of millions of war refugees who fled to the United States, Canada, China, Japan, the Philippines, South Vietnam until 1975, and the USSR, now Russia. Today, Korea remains a politically divided geographic unit. South Korea was under military rule 1953-1987, now a civilian democracy, but economic problems and a sense for adventure made over 500,000 South Koreans emigrate to the United States and Canada, and 100,000 more to Europe, Australia and South America (i.e. Brazil and Argentina). North Korea remains under an isolationist military state under Communism since 1948, while millions of political refugees fled to nearby China for freedom in the late 20th century.
• Kurdish diaspora - Kurdish diaspora is the Kurdish populations found in regions outside their ancestral homeland Kurdistan. The United Nations declared the Kurds the largest ethnic nationality (over 20 million) without a country in the world, followed up by Palestinians of the Middle East.

L

• Lebanese diaspora - An estimated 18 million Lebanese live worldwide.
• Lithuanian diaspora - the majority of post-WWII Lithuanians live in North America (Canada and the United States) and across Europe (France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Netherlands and England), but are scattered across Russia and the former USSR, and smaller numbers in Mexico and Brazil. The Lithuanians and their ethnological kin, the Latvians may be the oldest Indo-European speaking peoples known and may resided in the Baltic states for 5,000 years.
• Latvian diaspora - the majority of Latvians whom left Latvia in WWII reside in North America (the US and Canada), across Europe mainly in Eastern countries and the former USSR with just as many in western and Scandinavian nations, and the rest in former Latvian lands in the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus). The most Russified of the three Baltic states, Latvia struggles with the issue of national identity after one million ethnic Russians and other Russian speaking people settled there since 1940.

M

• Macedonian diaspora - formed from Macedonian refugees and economic migrants from Macedonia, to the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Italy, Greece, and many other European Union states. There are approximately 2,500,000 Macedonians worldwide, with more than a third living outside the Republic of Macedonia.
• Maghrebi diaspora - consists of people from the North African countries, notably Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The largest Maghrebi community outside of North Africa is in France, where it is estimated that North Africans make up the majority of the country's Muslim population. [1]
  • Algerian-French residents make up an estimated 5 to 8 percent of the ethnic makeup of France's population, despite the French government does not keep data records on race and ethnicity. Algerians resided in France for over 150 years as a result of the French colonial period in Algeria from 1830 to 1962, when the seven year Algerian War brought independence. The largest North African French communities are in Marseille, Paris and Lille.
  • Moroccans are found throughout the world, mainly in the Maghreb nations of North Africa, Egypt and the Middle East (a large Jewish colony in Israel) and expatriate communities in Europe (i.e. the largest being in France, followed by Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Great Britain and Ireland) developed by Moroccan immigration since the 1950s.
  • Tunisians in Europe, the largest number of Tunisian expats live in France and Italy (former colonial rulers), Egypt, Israel, Turkey and throughout the European Union.
• Maltese diaspora: occurred after the World War II and well into the 1960s and 70s due to the political climate at the time. Many Maltese left the island for the United Kingdom, Australia and America where sizable communities exist to this day. While not all left Malta with the intention of never returning, those that did not continued to think of Malta as their mother country. To this day, successive generations of Maltese-Australians and Maltese-Americans maintain a link with their ancestral home.
• Mexican Americans (Mexican diaspora)- over 20 million people of Mexican ancestry live in the United States, ranging from recent immigrants since the 1970s to long-established Americans of Spanish or Mexican descent. The majority of Mexican Americans live especially in the American Southwest, which borders with Mexico, an area that belonged to Mexico from 1821-1848. They were fundamental to development in the states of California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in the 20th century. Los Angeles is said to be the second largest Mexican city (home to one to two million alone), while the populace of San Antonio, Texas is over half of Mexican descent. Also known by other ethnic self-titles, like Chicanos, La Raza, Tejanos, Hispanos and Californios, however are officially called Hispanics and Latinos in terms of ethnic/cultural origins, but Mexican Americans had a large mestizo or mixed European/Native American heritage.
• Moldovan diaspora - A Romanian province was divided many times in its history, they are of ethnically Romanian origin. A diaspora indicating most of the Moldovans who have moved out of Moldova. Most found their homes in the Soviet Union and the Baltics. There is also a diaspora in Western European countries such as Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and the Netherlands.
• Moravian Church - has a nickname "the Moravian Diaspora" named from a religious, not ethnic' identity, having been founded in the province of Moravia, now in the Czech Republic. During the 16th and 17th centuries, religious persecution drove the majority of church members to other countries, and by the late 18th and 19th centuries, the church had managed to grow, thrive and survive. There are hundreds of thousands of Moravian church members in small communities in Europe (the Netherlands), the Americas (the United States), Africa (South Africa), east Asia (South Korea), the Indian subcontinent (India), and Oceania (Australia). However, the vast majority of these would consider themselves natives of the country where they live - the nickname (presumably) being of only historic interest.
• Mormons, a Christian religious group whose official name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well smaller other churches based on Mormonism. Just under 50 percent of all Mormons live in the United States, while about three-fourths of the population of Utah are Mormon and form large minorities in 8 other Western U.S. states, such as California is said to have the most LDS church members by population. Mormonism began as a small following of Christians who followed the teachings of Joseph Smith, founder of the early Mormon church in the early 19th century. The following were often forced to migrate and lived in the states of New York, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri by 1840. The Mormons were expelled by mob violence (Joseph Smith was killed) and persecution by neighbors in the 1840s and their new leader Brigham Young took the Mormons throughout the Great Plains and Rockies to settle the Salt Lake Valley in the western US in 1847. Mormons play a fundamental role in the development of Utah and most other Western states, with Utah becoming a state in 1896. Today, an estimated 13 million Mormons are found around the world, after missionary activity and conversion programs extended the L.D.S. and other Mormon-based churches worldwide, the largest concentrations of Mormons other than the U.S. are Mexico, Canada, South America, the South Pacific (esp. in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga), Scandinavia, Britain and East Asia, but the fastest growth in Mormonism in the late 20th century was in Africa, India and Eastern Europe.
• Montenegrins, a diaspora of South Slavs in the country of Montenegro whom had a 650 year tradition of independence and autonomy. They were a former republic of pre-1991 Yugoslavia and later a co-republic with Serbia until Montenegro declared independence in 2006. Over 1.3 million Montenegrins live in the Balkans, while half a million more are in Western Europe, 600,000 live in the USA and another 1 million around the world (i.e. Canada, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Australia).

N

• The Navajo Nation, is said to cover not only the four-corner states of the Southwest US (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado), but the "Na-Dene Diaspora" stretches from Fort Sumner (New Mexico) to Fort Sumter (So. Carolina), to Bosque Rodendo (N.M.) to Redondo Beach (California), and as far north as Fort Yukon, Alaska to Yukon near Oklahoma City and Kansas City (Kansas), and as far south as Mexico City. The dispersal of several hundred Native American tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries, also by BIA relocation programs into urban areas in the mid 20th century has indeed produced more Navajo/Dene people to indicate the Long Walk in the 1860s when 20,000 Navajo was forcibly removed then returned to their homeland (the Navajo Indian Reservation) was the beginning of the Na-Dene diaspora. An estimated 160,000 Navajo/Dene people live in the Southwest and about 250,000 more live across the U.S. with Navajo communities developed in Albuquerque, Dallas, Texas; Denver; Kansas City, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minnesota; Omaha, Nebraska; Phoenix, Arizona; and the San Francisco Bay Area.
• New Caledonia Kanaks - a Melanesian people native to the overseas French territory brought to Australia and New Zealand, and across Polynesia (The French territory of Tahiti) as agricultural workers in newly-founded plantations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most Kanak laborers in Australia were deported back to New Caledonia in the 1910s due to racial fears of Kanaks live among the country's white European-descent majority. Today, an estimated 30,000 Australian descendants of Kanaks live in the state of Queensland, where the main concentration of Australian plantation agriculture took place.
• Nigerian diaspora, people from the country of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. Over 3 million Nigerians live outside the country, as immigrants are known to live in the USA, the UK and South Africa, among other nations.
• Norwegian people, the country of origin is Norway. Many Norwegians emigrated outward from there, while it was under Danish (until 1814) and later Swedish rule (until independence came in 1905). The largest group of Norwegians settled in North America (i.e. the USA and Canada mainly in Manitoba) in the late 19th century, esp. in the states of Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin; and in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Oregon and Washington state). See Norwegian Americans and Norwegian Canadians.

O

• Oromo and Ethiopian peoples of Ethiopia, an estimated 30-50 million who have gone by different ethnological names like "Abysinnians", "Erthyreneans" and "Amharics". Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. The Oromo, Amhara, and Tigreans make up more than 3/4ths of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members. They live across the continent of Africa, while a mass movement of Ethiopian immigrants during the 20th century into the Middle East (one major area of choice is Israel), Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, North America (esp. the U.S. and Canada), and Latin America has created a global Oromo-Ethiopian diaspora.

P

• Palestinians - where forced out of Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (see Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian exodus, Palestinian refugees and Israeli-occupied territories).
• Pakistani Diaspora - People who are originally from Pakistan and have settled abroad. Are mainly economic migrants and settled mainly in the Middle East and Britain. The total population is approximately 7 million.
• Persian Diaspora - A.k.a. Iranians are a major community in Los Angeles, in the U.S., the major number of Persians in Los Angeles are located in Westwood, aka Little Persia, even the mayor of Beverly Hills is Persian (see Iranian Americans). Other large Iranian communities exist throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, east Asia and Australia, make up a total of 10 million belonged to the Persian/Iranian diaspora, the majority are political refugees who fled the overthrow of the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi regime in 1978 and Islamic Revolution of 1979.
• Peruvian diaspora - People who originally came from Peru. The largest Peruvian communities are in the United States (see Peruvian Americans), Canada, Europe (i.e. Spain and France), Japan and Australia.
• Pilipino diaspora or in the US, "Pinoys" for short. Spelled either Pilipino or Filipino. There are millions of people aboard around the world that are originally from the Philippines. The largest concentration of Filipino peoples of multiple ethnicities from the archipalego country is in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain and Spain, but widely scattered across East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America (esp. Mexico) and Europe (such as Italy and northern countries).
• "Polonia" - the diaspora of the Poles started with the emigrations after the partitions of Poland, January Uprising and the November Uprising, enlarged by the Nazi policies, and later by the establishment of the Curzon line. Historic Poland extended into nearby countries: Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine. For over 600 years, large waves of Polish Émigrés, refugees and guest workers moved across Europe, established themselves in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. 19th and 20th century Polish immigration extended into the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Israel and Australia, as well across the former USSR. After Poland joined the E.U. in 2004, about a million Poles went to find work in the E.U. member states, the largest destinations were the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal. See also Polish Americans for the 9 million of Polish descent in the USA , as well as Polish Brazilian for the 1.8 milion Brazilians of Polish descent.
• The Portuguese diaspora diaspora - main countries were the Portuguese live are in Europe: Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Andorra and the UK. Former Portuguese African and Asian colonies (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, India, Macau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste). Portuguese settled the country of Brazil in South America, but Portuguese colonies and communities in the western hemisphere: Argentina, Canada, the Caribbean islands, Chile, Guyana, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela are well noted. See also Portuguese Americans for the diaspora in the United States.
• Puerto Rican diaspora - a mass migration of Puerto Ricans from the island territory of Puerto Rico to the United States mainland began during the first half of the twentieth century and has become a subject often studied in colleges, because of Puerto Ricans who achieved success in the United States. The largest Puerto Rican communities in the mainland U.S. are in New York City (about 1 to 2 million in the New York City metro area), New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, but other Puerto Ricans live in all 50 states including Hawaii, and also a smaller community each in Canada and Spain in Europe. US-born Puerto Ricans called themselves Nuyoricans (from the Spanish word "Nuevo York" for New York) and Boriquas the island's nickname.
• The Punjabi diaspora - main regions Punjabis have migrated to include: EU (chiefly UK), Canada, USA, Malaysia and Australia, which took place in the 20th century.

Q

• Quebec diaspora or Québécois diaspora; the French name for French-speaking Canadians residing in the province of Quebec. See also French-Canadian diaspora. Quebec is the only non-English speaking majority region of Anglo-America.

R

• Rhodesian diaspora. Southern Rhodesia had the distinction amongst Britain's African colonies of being a self-governing Crown Colony. As a result most Southern Rhodesians did not regard Great Britain as home but instead regarded Southern Rhodesia as home, though they did recognise cultural ties to Great Britain. During and following the Bush War (1966–1979, during which period the former Southern Rhodesia was known as Rhodesia) more than half of Rhodesia's population of European descent emigrated mainly to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. For many South Africa was the first destination, where some have settled, but most of these migrants where transient and later reached further destinations. Others recognising their cultural ties to Great Britain emigrated there. This trend continued after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in June, 1979 and increased when Zimbabwe-Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in March, 1980 (following a brief 85 day period during which the land's name formally reverted to "Southern Rhodesia" for reasons of political expediency); it is estimated that the population of European descent decreased from a peak 275,000 in 1970, to 120,000 in 1999. British citizens resident in the region joined in this migration and did not in all cases return to Great Britain, or in some cases did so only temporarily before moving on. Northern Rhodesians of European descent also emigrated to these same destinations, though their migration began earlier when Northern Rhodesia became Zambia in 1964 and was not the result of war but economic pressure. People of European descent also emigrated from Nyasaland after 1964 and followed the same routes as Northern Rhodesians, for the same reason. See: Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
• The Russian diaspora - The earliest significant wave of ethnic Russian emigration took place in the wake of the Old Believer schism in the 17th century. A sizable "wave" of ethnic Russians emigrated during a short time period in the wake of the October Revolution and Russian Civil War, known collectively as the White emigres. A smaller group of Russians (often referred to by Russians as the second emigration or second wave) had also left during World War II, many were refugees or eastern workers. During the Soviet period, ethnic Russians migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union found themselves living outside Russia.
  • White Russian diaspora - named for the Russians and Belarusians who left Russia (the USSR 1918-91) in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution and Russian Civil War, seeking to preserve pre-Soviet Russian culture, the Orthodox Christian faith, and includes exiled former Communist party members, such as Leon Trotsky found exile in Mexico but was assassinated in 1940. The millions of Russian émigré and refugees found live in North America (the U.S. and Canada), Latin America with a sect of Old Believers (Molokans) settled in Guadalupe Valley, Baja California in Mexico, even more went to Europe (The UK, Austria, Belgium, former Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Scandinavia, Switzerland and former Yugoslavia), some to east Asia (China and Japan), south Asia (India and Iran) and the Middle East (Egypt and Turkey).
• Romani Diaspora - originating in the Punjab region of India, the Roma people began a mass migration to Europe ca. 1000 A.D. Romanies also live in other continents around the world, including the United States.
• Romanians - who emigrated for the first time in larger figures between 1910 and 1925, and left in mass after the fall of communist regime in Romania in 1989, and comprise the Romanian diaspora, are found today in large numbers in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, the U.K., China, Japan, Australia, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Today there are over 12 mil. people of Romanian descent outside the country.

S

• Scottish diaspora - includes the Auld Alliance and the Scottish Wars of Independence which led countless Scots to emigrate to mainland Europe to escape persecution and hardship. The Highland clearances which depopulated large parts of the Scottish Highlands and had lasting effects on Scottish Gaelic culture; the Lowland Clearances which resulted in significant migration of Lowland Scots to Canada and the United States after 1776; the Ulster-Scots, descended primarily from Lowland Scots who settled Ulster during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century and subsequently fled to the Americas in mass numbers throughout the 18th century due to religious and cultural persecution as well as other socio-economic factors. Other Scots and Ulster Scots went to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a smaller but important community in Argentina. (See also British diaspora, above).
• Serbian diaspora - from Serbia, former Yugoslavia. Over 12 million of Serbian descent live around the world, historically based in Serbia, nearby Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Albania, Republic of Macedonia and Romania. The largest overseas Serbian communities are in the U.S.A (See Serbian American) and Germany, as well as Austria, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Brazil and South Africa.
• Somali diaspora - includes ethnic Somalis who live in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, as well other parts of Africa. It also includes about 2.5 million people of Somali origin who live in the Middle East, Europe, Oceania, and North America, either as recent immigrants or as naturalized citizens.
• South African diaspora - mainly consists of South African emigrants of European descent, especially those whose mother tongue (first language) is Afrikaans. South Africans of European descent whose mother tongue (first language) is English have largely emigrated to Great Britain for the same reasons. There is also a growing middle class in South Africa of African descent, many of whom are starting to emigrate for better prospects, furthering the demographic weight of all South Africans abroad. South Africans have largely settled in Great Britain, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Argentina and Brazil.
• South Asian diaspora - includes millions of people from India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, whose descendants live in Suriname, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, and other countries who left British India in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and millions more who have moved to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in recent decades (see Desi, British Asian, South Asian American, Indo-Canadian).
  • Indian diaspora - estimated at over 30 million, refers to people originating from India living in other parts of the world.
  • Tamil diaspora - denotes people of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil origin who have settled in many parts of rest of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Reunion, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, French Caribbean islands, Europe, Australia and North America (US and Canada).
  • Sikh diaspora - from the Punjab region Sikhs have emigrated to all over the world. Now there are more than a million Sikhs outside of India. The biggest community is the British Sikh community which in the last census was recorded as 336,179 people. There are also major Sikh communities in Canada with 278,000, Malaysia (100,000), East Africa (100,000), America (87,000), and 150,000 living in Europe, and 32,000 in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Chitpavan Diaspora - Hindu converts of mixed Indian and East European (primarily Jewish) descent who migrated to India centuries ago.
  • The Roma (English terms: Gypsy, Gypsies) - a traditionally 'dispersed' people in Europe, with origins in South Asia (or perhaps, northern India) for 800-some years, are even more 'dispersed' today, following the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. (See Some names for the Roma) Over 10 million Roma live across Europe, the majority in Eastern countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia), and estimates of 250,000 Roma are known to live in North America (the US and Canada).
• Spanish diaspora - Refers to the migration of millions Spanish people over the last 500 years all over the world, for a great variety of reasons, especially to America, Africa (Spanish Guinea, Spanish Morocco, and the Canary Islands), and other Spanish territories in Europe. This has resulted in the diffusion of the Spanish language and the large number of Spanish names in the places mentioned. During the 20th century, the Spanish diaspora was increased due to the political and economic emigrants who left Spain during the Francoist dictatorship (1930's but his death in 1975 brought democratic reform back to Spain). Notable communities were established in Argentina, Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom and across Latin America.
• Swedish diaspora. Large numbers of Swedes (and Swedish speaking Finns from Finland also under Russian rule) migrated to the USA in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is estimated that about eight million Americans have some Swedish ancestry. Swedish Americans constitute 10% of the population of Minnesota and other large numbers settled in Wisconsin, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Large Swedish migration took place in Canada in the same time period along with other ethnic Scandinavians from Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Smaller waves of Swedish expatriates live across Europe, east Asia, Australia and Latin America, usually made up of retirees and businessmen in the late 20th century. A large colony of Swedes settled towns in the USA like Lindsborg, Kansas and Kingsburg, California in the late 1800s.
• Swiss diaspora, some 9% of Swiss citizens live across the globe. Swiss nationals and descendants live in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and nearby nations of France, Germany, Italy and Austria. Also to note West African nations such as Liberia and Ghana are known for several thousands of Swiss expatriates.
• Syrian diaspora - The largest Arab nationality diaspora in the world.

T

• Tibetan diaspora - began in 1959 when the People's Republic of China invaded Tibet. Most Tibetan refugees live in the United States, India (home to the exiled Dalai Lama, still the official leader of a nation no longer in existence), and Europe (over 30,000 went to Switzerland).
• Tuaregs, a group of Berbers in Western Sahara after the end of Spanish rule (1975) and Saharauis, whom fled the Moroccan invasion and occupation of the disputed territory known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
• Turkish diaspora - refers to the Turkish people living outside of Turkey (most notably in Germany).

U

• Ukrainian diaspora, represented by Ukrainians who left their homeland in several waves of emigration, settling mainly in the Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina), but also Australia, east Asia (China) and across Europe. Also includes the tens and millions of Ukrainians who migrated from Ukraine to other parts of the former Soviet Union (mainly Russian Federation) during Soviet time.
  • Ruthenians and Carpathians, self-titles for Slavic peoples from the small region of Ruthenia, encompasses easternmost Slovakia, southeast parts of Poland, northern edges of Hungary and westernmost Ukraine, had preserved a unique ethnocultural identity, but lacked an independent country of their own for almost a millennia. In the late 19th century and again between World Wars I and II, over a million Ruthenians fled their homeland and settled across Western Europe (France, Germany and Austria), North America (the U.S. and Canada) and the USSR (Russia), but lesser numbers settled in East Asia (China), the Middle East (Turkey), South America (Brazil) and Australia in the late 20th century.

V

• The Venezuelan diaspora - People from Venezuela who live outside of their territory: Mainly in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Italy. Most of them arrived to escape from the military dictatorship of the 1950s and the political repressions in the 1960s. Nowadays, there's a growing number of Venezuelans in Canada almost all of them working for the Oil industry after the 2002 strike. See also Venezuelan American.

W

• Welsh diaspora - The Welsh (or in the Welsh language - Cymru) are a Celtic people from Wales one of the four countries of the United Kingdom who manage to preserve their Celtic heritage after a millennia of English and then British rule. An estimated 5 million people of Welsh ancestry live globally in areas formerly part of the British Empire (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and lesser numbers in Latin America) and about 2 million Americans are of Welsh descent. In the 19th century, over 500,000 Welsh miners migrated out of Wales throughout the British Empire, western Europe, the Americas (the U.S. such as Jackson County, Ohio was nicknamed Little Wales) and South Africa for mining jobs, but others came as shepherds, factory workers and fishermen. The Welsh fought hard to preserve their culture, such as the revived Welsh language and their sense of identity in face of forced assimilation to the Anglo-British fabric. In the late 19th century, a small but solid Welsh settlement in Argentina (migration) took place to created a Welsh community (many there are bilingual in Spanish and Welsh) that survived to this day in the Argentinan provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz.
• Western Sahara the people on the exile of Mali, France, Spain, Algeria (mainly Tinduf), Mauritania, Niger, Italy and Senegal. And on the Free Zone of the Saharaui Republic.

X

• "Xin Uygurs" (or Uyghur people), a Turkic-speaking Muslim majority people of the Northwestern region of Xinjiang in China, their historic range for thousands of years. Political unrest by many Uygurs in the East Turkestan independence movement, a secessionist/autonomist drive calls for "the Uygur Republic of East Turkestan" in the last 30 years brought upon by Chinese Communist rule in Xinjiang. Chinese settlement in the region increased the percentage of Han Chinese to majority status, now over 65 percent of Xinjiang's 4.5 million people , reduced the Uygur population to minority status for the first time in its history. As a result, over 2 million Uygurs (less than half of them remain in Xinjiang) migrated outward, to autochthonous Uygur tribal areas in nearby countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and elsewhere in the former USSR (Russia). Other Uygurs long settled across China, but also are in Pakistan, the U.A.E, throughout Europe (the EU) and 200,000 live in the USA, the main communities of Uygurs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.

Y

• Yassic, or more commonly the Jassic people, a small ethnic group of peoples resided in enclaves in Hungary, Romania, throughout Russia and the Ukraine. The Jassic are ethnologically related to the Ossetians of the northern Caucasus range, along with distant Iranian and Turkic peoples in their linguistic similarities between the Iranian language and somewhat the Turkish language. Their ancestral origin may been in Persia or more procisely, the steppes of Central Asia about 3,000 years ago when migratory patterns of Indo-European and later Uralic-Altaic peoples arrived in Eastern Europe. The Jassic people are minuscule in number, dwindled down by each generation, and they were assimilated into the Hungarian population and Slavic majorities they lived among with.

Z

• Zoroastrian diaspora - two waves; the first took place in the seventh century when the Arabs conquered Persia and those who fled to India became known as the Parsees. In addition, after the Islamic revolution of 1979, several thousand of the remaining Zoroastrians in Iran fled to the United States and the European Union, the largest being in Great Britain.

Various

• Various Native Americans of the United States have diaspora legends, stories and identity, but this applies only after contact with Europeans and removal of entire tribal peoples by post-colonial white European governments from the 16th to 19th centuries.
• Various ethnic minorities from areas under Russian and Soviet control following the Russian Revolution, continuing through the mass forced-resettlements under Stalin.
• Various groups fled in large numbers from areas under Axis control during World War II, or after the border changes following the war, and formed their own diasporas. Only a few larger sized ethnic groups and nationalities were able to restore autonomy after the fall of Communism and the disbanding of the Soviet Union (1990–91).