Where is Home?
Exploring what it means to be an overseas American
I have been thinking a lot about diasporas lately.
What it means to live long term in a society outside the one you were raised in.
Diaspora
Diaspora refers to a large group of people who share a cultural and regional origin but are living away from their traditional homeland. Diasporas come about through immigration and forced movements of people.
We’ve only lived in Berlin two years, so I don’t consider us part of an American diaspora. I feel like that comes later - when you have been a part of an expatriate community for a generation or more.
But it has been on my mind as we prepare to vote absentee in this particularly fraught U.S. presidential election.
What does it mean to be an American who doesn’t live in America?
U.S. law requires me to pay income taxes as long as I remain a citizen. It allows me to vote in all federal and some state elections. But what role should overseas Americans have in shaping the public life and laws of a country they no longer l…
