A young researcher recently asked for my advice on her first steps in her study of Israelis abroad.

She admitted she was still unsure whether to treat this population as a diaspora or as a transnational community. Yet while discussing the distinctions between the two concepts, we quickly found ourselves returning to a core issue: the longstanding reluctance of Israeli governments to engage with Israeli citizens living abroad. Instead, they have usually—and mistakenly—viewed them simply as part of the Jewish diaspora.

Many countries around the world maintain relations with their citizens overseas, recognizing them as important resources in an era of global mobility. Some states interact with their diasporas symbolically; others economically, politically, and even legally. These forms of engagement reveal how a state understands and values its citizens abroad. Moreover, the way governments define “diaspora” shapes the policies they develop toward it.

Although state engagement with citizens abroad is not new, and formal ties with emigrants can be traced back to the 1960s, systematic and institutionalized diaspora policies have expanded dramatically since the 1990s. Enabled by advances in transportation, information flow, and communication technologies, dozens of countries today actively cultivate relationships with their diasporas. Diaspora policies include government initiatives, programs, institutions, or legal mechanisms designed to support and engage diaspora communities. Some states have broadened the scope of their consular services and created specialized bureaucratic bodies. Others have sought to channel the remittances, investments, and expertise of emigrants and their descendants, while responding to diaspora demands for political and social rights.

As the Israeli scholar Gabriel Sheffer (2003) notes, home states are reluctant to reach out to their diaspora first. They initially ignore the emigrant population, then monitor its progress and diaspora formation, transmit ambivalence afterward, and finally seek contact.

For years, Israel denied the very existence of emigration.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)