Several waves of immigrations and forceful expatriation occurred to Belarusians. One of the earliest was immigration of Belarusian protestants to Netherlands and North America in XVII century under pressure of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Counter-Reformation in Belarus. Then it was voluntary and involuntary migration of Belarusians to Siberia and Far East after Belarusian lands were occupied by Russian Empire in XVIII c. This continued throughout XIX c. Immigration to US had a massive influx beginning after 1863-64, when the unsuccessful uprising led by Kastus Kalinouski failed to attain freedom for the Belarus and was crushed by tsarist armies. The ensuing campaign of russification and religious persecution then began in earnest. The mass immigration from entire territory of Belarus, mostly for local reasons, came between 1880 and 1920. In late XIX c and early XX century there was massive wave of emigration to USA of Jewish Belarusians and Belarusian peasants driven by extreme need and poverty in Russian Empire Western province. Immigration continued during Stalin repressions of 1920-1930ies. Second big wave of immigration was at the end of WWII. This was a mix of people, who were running from Soviets, victims of pre-war Stalin's repressions (especially in Western Belarus, which was united with Eastern in 1939),  some nazi collaborators and thousands of young Belarusian forced laborers, who stayed in Europe after WWII. Forced laborers were justly afraid to go back to Stalin's USSR, as they were imprisoned there and libeled as "cowards and traitors". This wave of Belarusians was mainly directed towards USA, Canada, Australia and Argentine. Some stayed also in Germany, France and UK. The next 3rd big wave was after USSR fell apart - in 1990ies and continues until today. It had started as a wave of socio-economical immigration and turned into political asylum escapees when Lukashenka dictatorship has matured in the last few years. This immigration is going in the countries of European Union, USA, Australia, Canada and lately even Russia. This latest wave is mostly consisting of professionals - software and other engineers, scientists, students, sportsmen.

International organizations of Belarusian Diaspora

• Rada BNR - The Council of Belarusian Democratic Republic (Belarusian Government in Exile since 1919)
• Backauscyna - World Association of the Belarusians "Batskaushchyna" has been working since 1990, it unites 135 organizations of the Belarusian Diaspora from different countries of the world. See also information on the 4th Congress of Belarusians.
• NAABS - North American Association for Belarusian Studies
• BAOC - Belarusan Autocephalous Orthodox Church
• ZBMZ - Union of Belarusian Youth Abroad
• ZBS - Association of Belarusian Nobility
• Southern California Belarusian-American Association Group