Traces the history of refugees and migrants within a reconstructed twentieth-century Middle East.

Amid pervasive and toxic language, and equally ugly ideas, suggesting that migrants are invaders and human mobility is an aberration, one might imagine that human beings are naturally sedentary: that the desire to move from one's birthplace is abnormal. As the contributors to this volume attest, however, migration and human mobility are part and parcel of the world we live in, and the continuous flow of people and exchange of cultures are as old as the societies we have built together. Together, the chapters in this volume emphasise the diversity of the origins, consequences and experiences of human mobility in the Middle East. From multidisciplinary perspectives and through case studies, the contributors offer the reader a deeper understanding of current as well as historical incidences of displacement and forced migration. In addition to offering insights on multiple root causes of displacement, the book also addresses the complex challenges of host-refugee relations, migrants' integration and marginalisation, humanitarian agencies, and the role and responsibility of states. Cross-cutting themes bind several chapters together: the challenges of categories; the dynamics of control and contestation between migrants and states at borders; and the persistence of identity issues influencing regional patterns of migration.

Traces the history of refugees and migrants within a reconstructed twentieth-century Middle East.

Approaching the Middle East through the lens of Diaspora Studies, the 11 detailed case studies in this volume explore the experiences of different diasporic groups in and of the region, and look at the changing conceptions and practice of diaspora in the context of the modern Middle East.

Many students learn about the Middle East through a sprinkling of information and generalizations deriving largely from media treatments of current events. This scattershot approach can propagate bias and misconceptions that inhibit students’ abilities to examine this vitally important part of the world. Understanding and Teaching the Modern Middle East moves away from the Orientalist frameworks that have dominated the West’s understanding of the region, offering a range of fresh interpretations and approaches for teachers. The volume brings together experts on the rich intellectual, cultural, social, and political history of the Middle East, providing necessary historical context to familiarize teachers with the latest scholarship. Each chapter includes easy- to-explore sources to supplement any curriculum, focusing on valuable and controversial themes that may prove pedagogically challenging, including colonization and decolonization, the 1979 Iranian revolution, and the US-led “war on terror.” By presenting multiple viewpoints, the book will function as a springboard for instructors hoping to encourage students to negotiate the various contradictions in historical study.

Telling the stories of young refugees in a range of international settings, this book explores how newcomers navigate urban spaces and negotiate multiple injustices in their everyday lives, giving voice to refugee youth from a wide variety of social backgrounds.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq have a shared history, as both friends and enemies at one and the same time, and their growth as modern nation-states must be understood in that joint context. This book establishes a new narrative and timeline for bilateral relations between the two countries, while examining the work of other Arab and Western scholars, in order to excavate the biases underlying so much previous work on this topic. In doing so, it proposes a new way of looking at state formation and boundaries in the Middle East, by showing how the interactions of regional neighbors left an indelible imprint on the domestic politics of one another. The two different visions for managing the border that Saudi Arabia and Iraq developed in the 1920s generated mistrust on both sides, leading to a gradual process of estrangement that lasted through the 1950s and beyond. Ibn Saud made strenuous efforts to preserve the socio-economic ties that united the communities of southern Iraq with the Najd and, in turn, those efforts helped encourage a wave of Sunni Arab migrants from Iraq who helped build the Saudi state. Iraqi politicians and clerics attempted to use the issue of Ikhwan raids as a rallying cry for promoting their political agendas, thereby contributing to a growing sectarian discourse and undermining the nationalist rhetoric of the 1920 Revolution. The two countries had a remarkable and long-lasting impact on one another, even as they drifted farther and farther apart through mutual fear and suspicion.

Fábos and Isotalo address the issue of forced migration and mobility in the Muslim world. Their work explores the tensions between Muslim religious conceptions of space and place and new policies of 'migration management' and secure borders.

The organization of human smuggling from the Middle East and Africa through Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean has become a contemporary political concern throughout Europe, receiving intense and polarised media attention. This timely book reformulates how we conceive of human smuggling, challenging popular and political conceptions of the practice in Europe. This book proposes a new framework for examining the causes and effects of human smuggling in the Mediterranean, analysing the contingent patterns of human smuggling in the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean with a geographic focus on Turkey. Building on unique empirical material from fieldwork in Turkey and Greece, this book describes the rise of human smuggling as a practice, viewed through a framework of multiple 'contingencies'. Uniquely, this book includes in-depth testimonies of migrants who have survived crossing the Aegean Sea and details the strategies and tactics of the facilitators who help them. In Human Smuggling in the Eastern Mediterranean, Theodore Baird puts a human face to the tragedies occurring in the Mediterranean while maintaining that contingent historical, political, economic, and geographic forces have aligned to propel the practice of human smuggling forward. The book will be of interest to scholars working in migration studies, as well as scholars in the fields of sociology, criminology, law, political science, anthropology, and geography.

Syria as we knew it does not exist anymore. However, all conflicts change countries and their societies. Such an obvious statement needs to be unpacked in specific relation to Syria. What has happened, what does it mean, and what comes next? In order to consider the future of Syria, it is crucial to assess not only what has been destroyed, but also how it was destroyed. It is equally vital to address the structural and possibly enduring results of large-scale destruction and displacement. These dynamics are not only at play in Syrian society, but are tearing at the economic fabric and very territorial integrity of the country. If war is a powerful process of human and material destruction, it is equally a powerful process of spatial, social and economic reconfiguration. Nor does it stop at national borders--the unravelling of Syria, and of the idea of Syria, has affected and will continue to affect the entire Middle East. War-Torn explores these transformations and the processes that fuel them. It is an indispensable account throwing light on neglected aspects of the Syrian war, and a much-needed contribution to our understanding of conflicts in the twenty-first century.