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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2009
Professor paul robert magocsi should be commended for his article, “In Step or Out of Step with the Times? Central Europe's Diasporas and Their Homelands in 1918 and 1989.” It provides an important overview of a significant but hitherto generally neglected topic, and represents an essential contribution to our discussion of diasporas. One can only hope that by framing the issue as he has done and posing the questions mentioned in the article, our attention will be drawn to this subject with renewed interest. I find myself agreeing, for the most part, with his general observations. As such, the commentary that follows is intended largely to provide accentuated remarks and, where needed, some points of constructive criticism.
1 According to Canada's 2002 census, 5,448,480 Canadians were “foreign born” or “immigrant.” This would mean that no less than 18.4 percent of the total population belonged at that time to a “diaspora” of one kind or another, depending on how one chooses to define the term. In the U.S., the corresponding figures are 32.5 million and 11.5 percent. Although lower, the proportion of “foreign born” as a share of the population is growing more quickly in the U.S. and appears to be a more contentious issue. For example, see the recent controversy sparked by Huntington, Samuel P. with his book, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (New York, 2004)Google Scholar. Huntington fears that immigrants, especially Mexicans, who allegedly do not share America's cultural identity and whose loyalties lay elsewhere, threaten American identity. For the census data, see the Web sites of the U.S. Census Bureau and Statistics Canada at http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-539.pdf and http://www.statcan.ca/start.html, respectively; accessed on 4 August 2004.
2 Pre-1918 diasporas were far less political, consisting largely of peasants who emigrated primarily for socioeconomic reasons. The fact that many returned indicates their nonpolitical or apolitical nature. Generally speaking, these diasporas became political only during World War I and were politicized by recently emigrated politicians, such as Tomáš G. Masaryk in the Czech case and Ante Trumbić and Frano Supilo in the Croat (and Yugoslav) case, who fled the Habsburg monarchy in 1914–15 for political reasons.
3 Hockenos, Paul, Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism and the Balkan Wars (Ithaca, 2003), 124–27.Google Scholar
4 In her study of postcommunist Slovakia and the role of émigrés, Shari Cohen appears to dispute this point, although it is a subject still in need of additional research. See Cohen, Shari J., Politics Without a Past: The Absence of History in Post-Communist Nationalism (Durham, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 See the discussion of diaspora politics in Danforth, Loring's The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World (Princeton, 1995)Google Scholar, which ascribes great importance to the diaspora in both North America and Australia.
6 See Hockenos, , Homeland CallingGoogle Scholar. See also Glamočak, Marina, Koncepcije Velike Hrvatske i Velike Srbije u političkoj emigraciji (Concepts of Great Croatia and Great Serbia in the political emigration) (Užice, 1997).Google Scholar
7 Hudelist, Darko, “Dr. Franjo Tudjman: Život i karijera” (Dr. Franjo Tudjman: Life and career), Globus, 11 12 1999, p. 41Google Scholar. See also the treatment of his nationalist views in Čulić, Marinko, Tudjman: Anatomija neprosvijećenog apsolutizma (Tudjman: An anatomy of an unenlightened absolutism) (Split, 1999).Google Scholar
8 Hudelist, , “Dr. Franjo Tudjman,” 53.Google Scholar
9 Zimmerman, William, Open Borders, Non-Alignment, and the Political Evolution of Yugoslavia (Princeton, 1987), 106, 139.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., 139.
11 Ibid., 127.
12 Ibid., 140.