In Ancient Greek language, the term:”διασπορ?” meant dispersion or scattering. Previously, the term Diaspora was used by Greeks to designate the Greek citizens migrating to a colonized country.
Afterward, the word Diaspora was referring to people who came and settled in foreign countries because of many factors, such as war or looking for a better life. Nowadays, in globalization era, the terms Diaspora also became an emerging economy for a nation and the word “perantau” has been changed into Diaspora.
Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Founder of the Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN) gave his own interpretation and classified Indonesian Diaspora in four categories:
Firstly, the Indonesian people who still have legally, their Indonesian passports; Secondly, the Indonesian citizens who became foreigner citizens after a process of naturalization and have no longer their Indonesian passports.
The third category is foreigners who have parents or ancestors of Indonesian origin. An the last category is foreigners who have no Indonesian origin at all but love Indonesia.
Dr. Dino Patti Djalal mentioned Former US Ambassador in Indonesia, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, as someone of the fourth category because he can speak a real excellent Bahasa Indonesia.
Presently, the total number of Indonesian diaspora including the forth category is estimated at eight millions people.