Standing Waves: Remittances as Social Glue in Neo-Diasporic Communities

Abstract

Some diasporic communities are gaining in significance in the twenty-first century. Their persistent cohesion is explained by digitalization, increased mobility, and the exchange of material and immaterial resources. To analyze such flows, the concept of remittances is widely used. However, it has to be refined to match today’s dynamics of a neo-diaspora. Although the reciprocity of transfers is already being emphasized, many studies have a limited bipolar perspective on places of origin (imagined or real) and countries of residence. A historical reconstruction based on community magazines, social media communication, and qualitative interviews in Australia, the USA, and Lebanon will illustrate that multi-directional flows change in their composition, rhythm, and intensity over time due to several factors. Transmitted money, objects, symbols, information, collective narratives, emotions, and visits are here conceptualized as omnipresent “standing waves” that function as social glue in neo-diasporic communities, whose place of assumed origin thereby becomes “sacred.”