[2] A diaspora is a transnational community that defined itself as a singular ethnic group based upon its shared identity.
Whether this territory is in fact the homeland of a specific ethnic group, is a political matter.
Self-identified diasporas place great importance on their homeland, because of their ethnic and cultural association with it, especially if it has been 'lost' or 'conquered'.
That has led ethnic nationalist movements within several diasporas,[example needed] often resulting in the establishment of a sovereign homeland.
Ethnic diaspora communities are now recognized by scholars as "inevitable" and "endemic" features of the international system, writes Yossi Shain and Tamara Cofman Wittes,[1] for the following reasons: Diasporas are thus perceived as transnational political entities, operating on "behalf of their entire people" and capable of acting independently from any individual state (their homeland or their host states).