Typologies of Diaspora Organizations
Diaspora communities have long established several institutions to maintain their ethnic boundaries and transmit the desire to exist as a distinct ethnicity from one generation to the next. The different nature of these diaspora institutions offers a criterion for creating typologies. There are a number of ways to classify diaspora institutions, such as by the date of their foundation, their goals, or the areas of their activity. Furthermore, there are typologies that combine different principles to create a more complex form of categorization. One of the most striking examples of this is the typology developed by Attila Papp Z. and his collaborators, with the aim of classifying the functions and characteristics of Hungarian diaspora organizations in the United States. Their typology combines the principle of ethnically open vs. ethnically closed organizations with the principle of local vs. national organizations. The result of this combination is a matrix that encompasses four types of diaspora organizations: lobbying organizations (ethnically open at the national level); heritage organizations (ethnically closed at the national level); community showcase organizations (ethnically open at the local level); and community preservation organizations (ethnically closed at the local level). Even though this complex typology provides a structural understanding of the fundamental features of diaspora organizations, its ideal types rarely, if ever, exist in their pure form in everyday life. As the creators of the typology have pointed out, in reality, actual organizations share characteristics of different types.
