Diasporic Lobbying in American Politics

Abstract

Diasporic groups and individuals have participated in the performances of American politics ever since the birth of the republic because the mainstream politicians were all diasporans of European descent. This, however, is not the historical angle through which diasporic politics will be studied in this chapter. The focus here is on the contemporary period, a time when the Anglo majority constructs itself as mainstream and the first generation nonwhite immigrants as engaged in ethnic and diasporic politics. Such hegemonic construction of social reality wrongly implies that the mainstream seeks only to achieve the common good while diasporans are solely interested in the welfare of their ethnic communities. This categorization brings its own set of analytical problems, because the United States is a fundamentally diasporic nation. The distinction is better made between Creolopolitans (those who have been here for several generations, but who do not actively maintain relations with families in the ancestral homeland) and newcomers who are very much involved in ensuring the welfare of the homeland.

Ethnic lobbies stir up deep animosities. Influentials who deal with foreign policy issues see them as a bother. Politiciansgroup them with single-issue gadflies who see the world with blinders. Worst of all, ethnic lobbies have an aroma of being un-American, if not anti-American. They may imperil the country from within because their attachment to another country could undermine the national interest.

—Keely (1995:212–243)