Table Of Contenti
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON
MIDDLE EASTERN DIASPORAS
Bringing together different strands of research on Middle Eastern diasporas, the Routledge Handbook on
Middle Eastern Diasporas sheds light on diverse approaches to investigating diaspora groups in different
national contexts.
Asking how diasporans forge connections and means of belonging, the analyses provided turn the
reader’s gaze to the multiple forms of belonging to both peoples and places. Rather than seeing diasporans
as marginalised groups of people longing to return to a homeland, analyses in this volume demonstrate
that Middle East diasporans, like other diasporas and citizens alike, are people who respond to major
social change and transformations. Those we count as Middle Eastern diasporans, both in the region and
beyond, contribute to transnational social spaces, and new forms of cultural expressions. Chapters included
cover how diasporas have been formed, the ways that diasporans make and remake homes, the expressive
terrains where diasporas are contested, how class, livelihoods and mobility inflect diasporic practices, the
emergence of diasporic sensibilities and, finally, scholarship that draws our attention to the plurilocality of
Middle Eastern diasporas.
Offering a rich compilation of case studies, this book will appeal to students of Middle Eastern
Studies, International Relations, and Sociology, as well as being of interest to policymakers, government
departments, and NGOs.
Dalia Abdelhady is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Lund University, Sweden.
Her work features the application of postcolonial analysis to the sociology of migration. Following a com-
parative perspective, her work focuses on the meeting point between individual immigrants (and their
communities) and institutions in receiving countries (such as schools, labour markets, media and political
policies). In addition to a number of journal articles and book chapters, she is the author of The Lebanese
Diaspora: The Arab Immigrant Experiences in Montreal, New York and Paris (2011), and co- editor of Refugees
and the Violence of Welfare Bureaucracies in Northern Europe (2020).
Ramy Aly is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Ramy’s
first monograph Becoming Arab in London: Performativity and the Undoing of Identity was published in 2015.
The book is the first ethnographic account of gender, race and class practices among British-b orn and
-raised Arabs in London and attempts to provide an account of the everyday experiences of Arabness in
the British capital. Ramy’s research interests and publications engage with the anthropology of ethnicity,
migration and diaspora; anthropology and media studies; cultural studies; and youth cultures.
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‘This volume offers an impressive range of theoretically up-t o- date studies of Middle Eastern
diasporas both in the region and internationally that are particularly valuable in building on
recent insights in the field of diaspora studies and applying them creatively to different commu-
nities in a time of increasing transnational movement and connection.’
Anthony Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies,
University of Edinburgh, editor of Cultural Entanglements in the
Pre- Independence Arab World
‘This is an excellent collection that showcases the richness of an anthropological approach to
diasporic existence that never loses sight of people’s experiences. The individual chapters do
justice to the diasporic communities they are investigating, and the book as a whole through its
excellent curation manages the difficult task of giving a holistic sense of the multiple diasporic
processes of departure and arrival that mark the Middle East.’
Ghassan Hage, Professor of Anthropology and Development Studies,
Melbourne University, author of The Diasporic Condition
‘This groundbreaking volume is a tour de force, offering the single most comprehensive and
transdisciplinary examination of Middle Eastern diasporas in the world today. Focusing on
diasporic processes and sensibilities— or the multiple identifications and belongings of diasporans
both within and well beyond the Middle Eastern region— this volume deconstructs control-
ling images and highlights instead the agency, creativity, dynamism, and global consciousness
of those living in a wide range of diasporic settings. Historians, anthropologists, and political
scientists of the Middle East will find this volume to be an invaluable resource, as will those
interested in migration, globalization, and political activism.’
Marcia C. Inhorn, William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and
International Affairs, Yale University, author of Cosmopolitan Conceptions
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ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON
MIDDLE EASTERN DIASPORAS
Edited by Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly
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Cover image: Dreamstime
First published 2023
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
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly 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
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 21792- 1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 30440- 3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 26610- 2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9780429266102
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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To Noot and Ryan, our diasporic children
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CONTENTS
List of figures xi
Notes on contributors xii
Acknowledgements xix
1 Coming to and coming from the Middle East: the unfolding
of diaspora 1
Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly
PART I
Forming diasporas 21
2 To be denied a homeland: British Mandate policy and the making
of the Palestinian diaspora in Chile 23
Nadim Bawalsa
3 The AKP government in Turkey and diaspora- making: lobbying,
public diplomacy and the erasure of difference 39
Bengi Bezirgan- Tanış
4 Critical events and the formation of a Coptic diaspora in North
America between Al- Khanka and Al- Zāwiya Al- Hamrā 52
Michael Akladios
5 Opportunities here and there: digital diasporas and the Iranian
American election moment 66
Hajar Yazdiha
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Contents
6 The limits of diaspora: double vulnerabilities among Eritreans in
Saudi Arabia 78
Nicole Hirt and Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad
PART II
Making and remaking homes 89
7 The lifecycle of Amazigh diaspora activism in Europe: from institutional
pioneers to the new ethnicities of the postmodern age 91
Ángela Suárez- Collado
8 The diasporic Amazigh movement in France: articulating indigeneity 104
Jonathan Harris
9 Valorising some and marginalising others: the diasporic field in the
making of Lebanon 117
Paul Tabar and Wahib Maalouf
10 Transnational networks in Tunisia’s democratisation: Diaspora activism
in France and Italy 130
Alessandra Bonci
11 Secularism, sectarianism and the transnational connectivity of the
Lebanese diaspora in Senegal 143
Mara A. Leichtman
PART III
Expressive terrains of contestation 157
12 The semantics and substance of contesting Turkishness in
the diaspora 159
Pinar Dinc
13 De- orientalising queer Iranian diasporic identities 171
Farhang Rouhani
14 Queering diaspora through visual art: contesting the double binds of
homonationalism 181
Andrew Gayed
15 Post-t arab identities in diaspora: a sonic imaginary of Arab Canada 197
Jillian Fulton- Melanson
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Contents
16 Resisting marginalisation, renegotiating gender: intersectional narratives
of diaspora experiences 209
Dalia Abdelhady
17 Creativity as a contested site of identity- making: careers, gender and
diaspora for Sydney’s Lebanese Australians 221
Sherene Idriss
PART IV
Class, livelihood and mobility 235
18 Exploring the creative Israeli diaspora: reading class and profession in the
diaspora 237
Nir Cohen and Steven J. Gold
19 Making middle- class lives: diaspora and belonging among Pakistanis in
Dubai 250
Gennaro Errichiello
20 Diasporic before the move: China’s Hui Muslims’ trade and ties
with Iran and Muslimness 262
Man Xu
21 A diasporic balancing act: Syrian entrepreneurs in Turkey,
Egypt and Jordan 274
Ching- An Chang
22 Diaspora Syrians and humanitarian aid in the Syrian civil war 286
Shawn Teresa Flanigan
PART V
Diasporic sensibilities 301
23 Return migration and repatriation: myths and realities in the interwar
Syrian mahjar 303
Stacy D. Fahrenthold
24 The emergence of diasporic sensibilities among Iraqis in London 316
Zainab Saleh
25 Healed pasts, multiple belongings and multifocal engagements: a
Danish- Palestinian diaspora tour 328
Nina Gren
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