Most of the merchants that belonged to the cross-cultural diamond trade network belonged to a group of outsiders. Dormer came from England to settle first in Flanders, than in Brabant. A similar trajectory was taken by the Cliffords, who settled in a country in which the majority shared their religion. They did not have structural difficulties in integrating in a new society and did not have to overcome religious differences. Dormer gained entry into the local nobility, possessed a house in Antwerp and a small castle a little outside of town. Francis Mannock had experience as an English merchant abroad, when he operated out of Cadiz for a few years. The Salvador and Nunes families, as well as Paul Berthon and Peter Garnault, were outsiders who had a harder time settling abroad, because of their embeddedness within a religious diaspora. The strong attachment of Joseph Salvador and other Sephardic merchants to the Jewish diaspora and religion had consequences with regard to their relationships with the host society within which they had settled. This rang also true for the members of the Levy, Norden and Salomons families with whom Dormer maintained a correspondence.

Because of their attachment to an international community, diaspora merchants are often considered in the light of their contribution to forms of globalization.