Diaspora, Internationalization and Higher Education

Traditionally, the term ‘diaspora’ (from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) referred to the dispersion of the Jewish people from ancient Israel. It had a pejorative connotation, associated with Jewish punishment for disobeying divine laws and decrees and was defined broadly by (traumatic/forced) dispersion leading to ‘exile’ and continued longing for an idealized homeland and ‘return’ to it (Cohen, 2008). Over time, the term began to be used more widely, and particularly in situations that aligned with these types of criteria (e.g. the Armenian, Greek and African diaspora) (Tölölyan, 2012)