This book compares the life courses of forced migrants in two of the world’s most important transit countries: Turkey and Mexico. It examines the local, regional, and global contexts of their experiences, trajectories, and biographical projects, caught between return, stay, and forward movement. Forced migration has increased rapidly around the world in recent years, with Mexico and Turkey experiencing particularly high numbers of migrants, as conflict, violence, authoritarian regimes, environmental disasters, economic instability, lack of opportunity, and generalized violence have driven people to leave their homes in search of a better life. With a special focus on organized violence, this book analyzes the specific impact of organized violence on the trajectories and biographies of forced migrants, situating these life courses in the political, economic, cultural, and social contexts of the countries of origin (Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria; El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) and in the country of transit (Turkey and Mexico). Using extensive original empirical data and analysis, it argues that forced migration is a long-lasting social process based on everyday actions and social practices throughout the migration trajectory. Systematically comparing two of the world’s most important transit countries, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of migration, politics, international relations, and sociology.

Building on existing debates in international organizations, policy and academia, this insightful book argues for a broader transnational perspective on the concept of forced migration and its multiple contexts and catalysts. It analyzes the different social groups of forced migrants, treating them neither as passive victims nor as activist heroes, but as social actors under highly constrained conditions.

This book analyzes the different ways in which forced migration comes together with organized violence in the Americas, focusing specifically on the migration corridor from Central America, through Mexico and on to the United States. No matter their starting point, most South and Central American migrants to the United States must eventually traverse Mexico, and often many other borders beforehand, to reach their destination. As border controls tighten, for many migrants turning back is not a possibility, or something they desire. And so, when faced with hardening policies, migrants are often forced into situations of increased violence and precarity, without a shift in their ultimate objective. This book analyzes the complex social situations of everyday violence, and increasingly aggressive border controls, which face migrants in Mexico, as well as their exposure to a different kind of violence during their migration trajectory through the criminal actors such as gangs, cartels, and corrupt law enforcements that seek to make a profit from them. The book takes a critical approach on migration policies and on the externalization of borders by analyzing their effects on the trajectories and experiences of migrants themselves. It shows that the more migrants’ opportunities and rights during transit are hindered, the more they are at risk of exposure to these actors. Foregrounding the voices of migrants, this book offers fresh insights into debates surrounding migration, politics, international relations, and anthropology in the Americas.

The crossing of national state borders is one of the most-discussed issues of contemporary times and it poses many challenges for individual and collective identities. This book examines the three constitutive parts discerned in the cross-border mobility decision-making process: people, borders and trajectories and their interrelationships. Illustrated by a global range of case studies, it demonstrates that the relation between the three is not fixed but flexible and that decision-making contains aspects of belonging, instability, security and volatility affecting their mobility or immobility.

Migration is an issue that is under discussion worldwide and affects South Africa, the United States of America and Germany in a distinctive way. This book reflects academically on this significant and topical subject of migration from the often neglected perspective of the fields of theology and Christian ethics. While the majority of contributions are from the South African context, there are also chapters reflecting on the topic from the other two aforementioned contexts. While numerous publications have recently appeared on the subject, reflection from theology and Christian ethics are often lacking. As such, this scholarly publication wants to add ethical value to the local and global conversations on the theme from a theological perspective. The book reflects on migration from the perspectives originated in the disciplines of biblical studies (the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament), systematic theology, ecumenical studies, Christian ethics, practical theology, and missiology. It presents new and innovative inquiries primarily from a qualitative methodological viewpoint. The book unveils new themes for deliberation and provides novel interpretations and insights into existing research.

Maral Jefroudi presents a comprehensive picture of one of the largest migration waves in contemporary history by analyzing refugees' interactions with the Turkish State, the UNHCR, and within the community of Iranians in transit after the 1979 revolution. Iranian Refugees in Transit unveils the rich history of political engagement among Iranian refugees before their arrival in Turkey, contextualised within Turkey's own landscape of political and ethnic conflicts. Jefroudi expertly examines the intersectional distribution of precarity among refugees. By bringing together interviews with refugees from the period, analyzing cultural products by and on them, and tracing their footsteps in newspapers and scholarly literature, this book fills a significant gap in Turkey's migration history. Through a critical historical analysis of the international asylum system, Iranian Refugees in Transit offers valuable insights into the dynamics of the current 'refugee crisis'.

Troubled Transit considers the situation of asylum seekers stuck in limbo in Indonesia from a number of perspectives. It presents not only the narratives of many transit migrants but also the perceptions of Indonesian authorities and of representatives of international and non-government organizations responsible for the care of transiting asylum seekers. Fascinated by the extraordinary and seemingly limitless resilience shown by asylum seekers during their often lengthy and dangerous journeys, the author highlights one particular fragment of their journeys - their time in Indonesia, which many expect to be the last stepping stone to a new life. While they long for their new life to unfold, most asylum seekers become embroiled in the complexities of living in transit. Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is more than a location where people spend time waiting; it is a nation state that interacts with transiting asylum seekers and formulates policies that have a profound impact on their experience in transit there. Troubled Transit tries to explain the complexities faced by the transiting migrants within the context of the Indonesian government and its political challenges, including its relationship with Australia. The Australia-centric view of recent asylum seeker issues has tended to ignore the larger socio-political context of the migratory routes and the perspectives of transit states towards asylum seekers stuck in transit. This book hopes to direct the Australia-centric gaze northwards to take Indonesian policies and policymaking into account, thereby giving Indonesia more relevance as a transit country and as an important partner in regional protection schemes and migration management. Even though some Indonesian policies and practices are less than favourable for asylum seekers, and even reprehensible from a human rights perspective, more attention must be paid to ongoing developments that impact on transiting asylum seekers in Indonesia if any of the hardships they suffer there are to be alleviated.

Imagining Latinidad examines how Latin American migrants use technology for public engagement, social activism, and to build digital, diasporic communities. Thanks to platforms like Facebook and YouTube, immigrants from Latin America can stay in contact with the culture they left behind. Members of these groups share information related to their homeland through discussions of food, music, celebrations, and other cultural elements. Despite their physical distance, these diasporic virtual communities are not far removed from the struggles in their homelands, and migrant activists play a central role in shaping politics both in their home country and in their host country. Contributors are: Amanda Arrais, Karla Castillo Villapudua, David S. Dalton, Jason H. Dormady, Carmen Gabriela Febles, Álvaro González Alba, Yunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar, Anna Marta Marini, Diana Denisse Merchant Ley, Covadonga Lamar Prieto, María del Pilar Ramírez Gröbli, David Ramírez Plascencia, Jessica Retis, Nancy Rios-Contreras, and Patria Román-Velázquez. Imagining Latinidad: Digital Diasporas and Public Engagement Among Latin American Migrants is now available in paperback for individual customers.

Places of Privilege examines dynamics of privilege and power in the construction of place in a period of the rapid social transformation of places, borders and boundaries. Drawing on inter-disciplinary perspectives, the book examines place as a site for the making and re-making of privilege, while considering new meanings of community, and examining spaces for cultural identity and resistance. Chapters point to a range of conceptual resources that can be utilised to produce critical analyses of place-making. As the authors point out, power and privilege shape place but these dynamics are in turn shaped by the specific place based histories and social dynamics within which they are located. Contributors are: Lutfiye Ali, Alison M. Baker, Paola Bilbrough, Tony Birch, Jora Broerse, Sally Clark, Josephine Cornell, Yon Hsu, Lou Iaquinto, Karen Jackson, Shose Kessi, Rebecca Lyons, Chris McConville, Nicole Oke, Amy Quayle, Alexandra Ramirez, Kopano Ratele, Christopher C. Sonn, and Ramón Spaaij.

Questioning the notion of transit migration, the book examines factors that shape Central American migrants' mobility and immobility in the transnational space, comprised on Central American countries, Mexico, and the US.