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A diaspora (daɪˈæspərə ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently reside elsewhere. Notable diasporic populations include the Jewish diaspora formed after the Babylonian exile; Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora following the Assyrian genocide; Greeks that fled or were displaced following the fall of Constantinople and the later Greek genocide as well as the Istanbul pogroms; the emigration of Anglo-Saxons (primarily to the Byzantine Empire) after the Norman Conquest of England; the southern Chinese and Indians who left their homelands during the 19th and 20th centuries; the Irish diaspora after the Great Famine; the Scottish diaspora that developed on a large scale after the Highland and Lowland Clearances; Romani from the Indian subcontinent; the Italian diaspora and the Mexican diaspora; Circassians in the aftermath of the Circassian genocide; the Palestinian diaspora due to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; the Armenian diaspora following the Armenian genocide; the Lebanese diaspora due to the Lebanese civil war; and Syrians due to the Syrian civil war. According to a 2019 United Nations report, the Indian diaspora is the world's largest diaspora, with a population of 17.5 million, followed by the Mexican diaspora, with a population of 11.8 million, and the Chinese diaspora, with a population of 10.7 million. The term "diaspora" is derived from the Greek verb διασπείρω (diaspeirō), "I scatter", "I spread about" which in turn is composed of διά (dia), "between, through, across" and the verb σπείρω (speirō), "I sow, I scatter". In Ancient Greece the term διασπορά (diaspora) hence meant "scattering". There is confusion over the exact process of derivation from these Ancient Greek verbs to the concept of diaspora. Many cite Thucydides (5th-century BC) as the first to use the word.

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