Qui fait la diaspora? Le problème de l’identité dans les recherches sur les diasporas

This article opens up a debate on the analytical relationship between “identity” and “the diaspora”. We discuss whether approaching the diaspora from an identitarian perspective constitutively generates an essentialist view of the diaspora or, contrariwise, allows the analysis of socio-cultural and cognitive processes of diaspora configuration. Is an analysis of the diasporic identity operational? Starting from various approaches to the diaspora, this article highlights certain analytic limits in understanding the relationship between concept (definitions of the diaspora), practices (forms of individual and collective reflexivity, belonging, solidarity or resistance practices) and the problem of diasporic identity.