Many nation-states enact diaspora citizenship policies, offering immigration and citizenship rights to populations beyond their borders. What determines bottom-up engagement with such policies? While existing research emphasises identity and instrumental benefits as drivers of diaspora engagement, the present study focuses on the role of crises. It examines how ethnic minority populations mobilise diaspora citizenship options in response to different forms of precarity. The study compares two crisis-driven surges in Jewish emigration to Israel: from Argentina during the economic collapse of 2000–2002, and from France during a wave of antisemitic violence in 2012–2015. The article develops an analytic distinction between generalised precarity, which has society-wide effects, and targeted minority precarity, which exposes specific groups to risk while isolating them. Under generalised precarity, diaspora citizenship tends to function as an insurance strategy, mitigating risk through mobility options. Under targeted precarity, diaspora citizenship is more likely to function as a refuge, leading to ethnic migration and more definitive exit. The findings contribute to debates on diaspora citizenship, ethnic minorities, and migration by highlighting crises as moments of activation and showing how different forms of precarity generate different patterns of diaspora engagement.

Yossi Harpaz, Between insurance and refuge: minority precarity and diaspora citizenship in France and Argentina, Third World Quarterly, 2026.