Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant Agency in the Face of Power

365 Pages·2022·10.609 MB·English

by  Tamar Mayer (editor), Trinh Tran (editor)

Displacement, Belonging, and Migrant
Agency in the Face of Power
This book centers the voices and agency of migrants by refocusing attention
on the diversity and complexity of human mobility when seen from the per-
spective of people on the move; in doing so, the volume disrupts the binary
logics of migrant/refugee, push/pull, and places of origin/destination that
have informed the bulk of migration research.
Drawn from a range of disciplines and methodologies, this anthology links
disparate theories, approaches, and geographical foci to better understand
the spectrum of the migratory experience from the viewpoint of migrants
themselves. The book explores the causes and consequences of human dis-
placement at different scales (both individual and community-level) and
across different time points (from antiquity to the present) and geographies
(not just the Global North but also the Global South). Transnational schol-
ars across a range of knowledge cultures advance a broader global discourse
on mobility and migration that centers on the direct experiences and narra-
tives of migrants themselves.
Both interdisciplinary and accessible, this book will be useful for scholars
and students in Migration Studies, Global Studies, Sociology, Geography,
and Anthropology.
Tamar Mayer is the Robert R. Churchill Professor of Geosciences at
Middlebury College in Vermont, USA.
Trinh Tran is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Education Studies
at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA.

Displacement, Belonging, and
Migrant Agency in the Face
of Power
Edited by Tamar Mayer and Trinh Tran
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Tamar Mayer and Trinh Tran;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Tamar Mayer and Trinh Tran to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mayer, Tamar, 1952- editor. | Tran, Trinh, editor.
Title: Displacement, belonging, and migrant agency in the face of power /
edited by Tamar Mayer and Trinh Tran.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021062075 (print) | LCCN 2021062076 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367772932 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367772949 (paperback) | ISBN
9781003170686 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Immigrants--Developing countries--Social conditions. |
Refugees--Developing countries--Social conditions. | Internal
migrants--Developing countries--Social conditions. | Imperialism--Social
aspects. | Developing countries--Emigration and immigration--Social
aspects.
Classification: LCC JV6225 .D57 2022 (print) | LCC JV6225 (ebook) | DDC
304.809172/4--dc23/eng/20220322
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021062075
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021062076
ISBN: 978-0-367-77293-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-77294-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17068-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003170686
Typeset in Times New Roman MT Std
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
To Shoshana Mayer and to the memory of Artur Mayer, Tai
Tran, and Hia Quach, who all made the journey as migrants

Contents
List of illustrations x
Editors xi
List of contributors xii
Acknowledgments xix
1 Displacement, belonging, and migrant agency in the face
of power: challenging paradigms in migration studies 1
TAMAR MAYER AND TRINH TRAN
PART I
Regimes of belonging 39
2 Out of place in antiquity 41
ELENA ISAYEV
3 Reimagining “refugee” protection: beyond improving the status quo 62
JENNIFER HYNDMAN
4 Governance of migration in South Asia: the need for a decolonial
approach 78
SABYASACHI BASU RAY CHAUDHURY
5 Lives on the move: experiences of exclusion, vulnerability,
and resilience of Venezuelan forced migrants in Peru 92
LUISA FELINE FREIER AND ANDREA KVIETOK
PART II
Drivers of displacement 107
6 War and forced migration in medieval Iberia (1085–1266):
between al-Andalus and the feudal world 109
J. SANTIAGO PALACIOS
viii Contents
7 Migration and modern slavery: perspectives in Africa to Europe
migration 123
OLAYINKA AKANLE
8 The anxious integration of former enclave or “new” citizens in
North Bengal, India 136
NASREEN CHOWDHORY AND SHAMNA THACHAM POYIL
9 Climate and non-climatic stressors, internal migration, and
belonging in Ghana 153
HANSON NYANTAKYI-FRIMPONG AND DINKO HANAAN DINKO
10 Henancun in Beijing, a parallel society in the making 166
JIA FENG AND GUO CHEN
PART III
Re-creating home away from home 183
11 Uprooted: living between two worlds—German postwar refugee:
narratives on displacement and exile 185
ANDREAS KOSSERT AND TAMAR MAYER
12 Palestine in exile: blurring the boundaries and re-creating the
homeland 199
ANNE IRFAN
13 Displacement, diaspora, and statelessness: framing the
Kurdish case 212
NAIF BEZWAN AND JANROJ YILMAZ KELES
14 What makes a place a home?: Syrian refugees’ narratives on
belonging in Turkey 225
DOĞUŞ ŞIMŞEK
15 “This is about making family”: creating communities of
belonging in schools serving refugee-background students 238
SHAWNA SHAPIRO
PART IV
Gender, sexuality, age, and belonging 253
16 “I am not alone”: Rohingya women negotiating home and
belonging in Bangladesh’s refugee camps 255
FARHANA RAHMAN AND NAFAY CHOUDHURY
Contents ix
17 Journeys of belonging: Latina migrant lesbians in Long Beach,
California 271
SANDIBEL BORGES
18 The welfare state and women’s citizenship in Buchi Emecheta’s
Second Class Citizen 284
BEN SUZUKI GRAVES
19 Navigating the regime of illegality: experiences of migration and
racialization among 1.5-generation Mexican migrant women 298
HEIDY SARABIA, LAURA ZARAGOZA, AND ALEJANDRA AGUILAR
PART V
Challenges to migration research 315
20 Refusal and migration research: new possibilities for feminist
social science 317
EMILY MITCHELL-EATON AND KATE CODDINGTON
Index 331