The Afghan Diaspora in Europe: Transportation of Homeland Conflict

This thesis examines the Afghan diaspora in Europe, with a focus on how conflicts from Afghanistan are transported, interpreted, and reproduced abroad. While migration from Afghanistan has been widely studied in humanitarian and legal contexts, little attention has been given to the fragmentation within diaspora communities. Based on existing publications, semi-structured interviews, and informal observations conducted in Russia in 2023 and several EU member states in 2025, this research explores how ethnic, political, generational, and social conflict lines shape diaspora life. It argues that the Afghan diaspora should not be treated as a homogenous entity, since it mirrors homeland conflicts expressed in high levels of endogamy and symbolic acts of antagonism between groups. The comparative analysis of Afghan communities in Russia and Western Europe highlights how host-country's political environment conditions diaspora organisations, political mobilisation, and community representation. By placing the Afghan case within broader diaspora and conflict studies, the thesis contributes to understanding the transnational reproduction and transformation of violent conflicts.