Introduction

Funded by The Leverhulme Trust, and based in the Department of Geography and The City Centre at Queen Mary, University of London, this research project proposes the idea of ‘diaspora cities’:

• (i) to analyse the importance of the city rather than the nation and/or ‘homeland’ for many people living in diaspora;
• (ii) to understand the importance of migration and diaspora within cities of origin as well as resettlement.

The research studies the Anglo-Indian, Brahmo, Chinese and Jewish communities in Calcutta, their migration to London, Toronto and Jerusalem since 1947, and the effects of migration for those who have remained in Calcutta. These four communities form an important part of Calcutta as a diaspora city and the Calcuttan diaspora in London, Toronto and Jerusalem. Situated within broader debates about migration and diaspora, transnational and postcolonial urbanism, cosmopolitan cities and urban memory, the research investigates the material and imaginative practices and networks that connect cities and minority communities across diaspora space.

The Anglo-Indian community
The Brahmo community
The Chinese community
The Jewish community

Download Diaspora Cities: Urban Mobility and Dwelling programme [pdf, 321kb]