Visualising an emerging diaspora

Abstract

This visual essay uses photovoice to explore how Israeli migrants negotiate questions of identity and belonging within an emerging diasporic community in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Twelve women were invited to document their daily experiences through photography and to engage in collective reflection through individual interviews and focus group sessions. The visual material documents a way of life organised around sustainable living, connection to land, community-making, and alternative forms of belonging. Against the backdrop of Zionist ideals and the cultural taboo surrounding Israeli emigration, these women construct diasporic imaginaries of belonging that unsettle fixed understandings of home and nationhood. Participants discussed their desire to move beyond the political, cultural, and militarised frameworks of Israeli national identity and integrate into the alternative cosmopolitan community that has emerged in the region. Yet in practice, as the photographs and fieldwork revealed, they maintain close ties to other Israelis and Israeli culture. In doing so, the project reveals the contradiction at the heart of this emerging diaspora: a desire to leave Israeliness behind, and the difficulty of actually doing so.