What is the Diaspora Thinking?

Cutting-edge research asked 12,000 Armenians to provide their views and opinions

The Armenian Diaspora Survey published the results of the research conducted in 2021 and 2022. Over 12,000 Armenians in more 50 diaspora communities in ten countries provided their views and opinions on questions of identity, language, culture, community and political engagement, and relations with Armenia.

This unprecedented cutting-edge research is a project funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, under the auspices of the Armenian Institute in London, and is led by a group of international scholars and researchers.

“The Armenian diaspora is multifaceted, complex and geographically spread around the world. Yet, the main subject around which virtually all themes in diasporic life orbit is ‘Armenian identity’”, said ADS director Dr. Hratch Tchilingirian of University of Oxford.

Unlike a few decades ago, in contemporary times, “one generalization we could make based on our research is that Armenian identity is largely self-defined, fluid and personalized,” explained Dr. Tchilingirian. “Armenians living in the same country or in the same state or city could have different perceptions and understanding of ‘Armenianness’, depending on multiple variables, such as family upbringing, community, personal preferences, so on.”

The results of both the 2021 survey conducted in Belgium, Paris, United Kingdom and Rostov on Don and the 2022 survey in the United States and Ontario, Canada are publicly available and could be downloaded for free from the ADS website (www.armeniandiasporasurvey.com ). The previous round was completed in 2019 in Argentina, Lebanon, Montreal and Romania.

ADS fills a critical gap in the knowledge of the Diaspora and provides evidence-based understanding of the multi-layered and diverse aspects of diasporic life. The results are used to inform the public, scholars, policy-makers and community leaders about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the Armenian world in the 21st century.

“We are pleased that this systematic survey that covers a vast geography of the Armenian Diaspora has been successfully completed and the results are published,” said Dr. Razmik Panossian, Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Armenian Communities Department. “Understanding the Diaspora is a crucial part of our mandate to support Armenian Studies globally. We look forward to building on this research and enhancing its impact on policy development. I thank the ADS team and all the people involved with the project and its success,” Panossian added.

More substantive final reports will follow, which will include short chapters on the results of each of the communities in the survey.