ABSTRACT
As it is now impossible to ignore the general ‘ethnic revival’ (Smith 1993), it is also difficult to ignore the existence, activities and growing cultural, political and economic significance of ethno-national diasporas, whether these are state-based or stateless (Sheffer 1993, 1994). This recognition, however, is fairly recent. Only two decades ago, both practitioners and analysts on the right and left, had dismissed the diasporic entities as ephemeral and not meriting serious attention.
