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diaspora

I'd like to open discussion on the term diaspora. When I first saw this article I felt quite uneasy about the terms applied to people of Slovak heritage. It's a very diverse group, and the term emigrant, migrant or even Slovak abroad might not correctly reflect their individual situation and shouldn't be applied collectively and broadly to everyone.

I believe that the term Slovak abroad is bound to be POVish, since it implies that the person has some form of active relationship with the present-day Slovak Republic or has declared himself or herself to be Slovak, which might not include the descendants of people born in Slovakia or other individuals of Slovak heritage, sometimes several generations removed from the country of their ancestors.

If you look up the term diaspora, you'll find that it has been used successfully for the Jewish community living outside of their historical homeland. There are other Misplaced Pages articles (Irish Diaspora), which use this term as well. Please note that diaspora does not imply that this group of people has to reside in the US or that they are Jewish.

However, since it's an English term and hence its present usage was quite likely coined in the US due to its predominance in the last few decades, it might seem unfamiliar to e.g. the Slovak disapora in GermanyJbetak 01:24, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

difficulty understanding

The "2 016 000" number is highly outdated. All other people-pages have 2005 statistics. The 2005 estimate dropped to about 1.1-1.4 million Slovaks abroad (probably due to assimilations within other ethnic groups and/or return to Slovakia). Why do we keep reverting the numbers?

We keep the old numbers because they refer to true figures - i.e. to censuses (the next one will be in 5 years). Any other figure is a "double estimate" (of the census results and of the "true" number of Slovak with respect to that number). In addition, the figures are only 1 year old or so, your number is not consistent with them, and I do not believe that the estimates have changed so much during 4 years...So, just tell me your source and we will write: According to XYThe estimate for 2005 is ZW. That's all. Juro 03:35, 21 August 2005 (UTC)