This new volume is a successful effort to combine Middle East studies with the conceptual and theoretical tools of diaspora studies. The Middle East has served as the homeland and host area for various diaspora groups throughout history, and it continues to create new waves of outmigration as a result of the volatile political and economic situation in many parts of the region. This, in turn, creates new diaspora groups.
It is now widely accepted that diasporas are important nonstate actors, the study of whom can contribute to our understanding of the complex organization of contemporary politics. In this edited volume, Sossie Kasbarian and Anthony Gorman bring together articles that enable the reader to understand Middle Eastern politics through diasporic lenses. These articles also contribute to our understanding of contemporary diasporic identity formation with an emphasis on the homelands and host states shaping it. The eleven case studies that form the chapters of this book are based on extensive fieldwork and involve methods such as in-depth interviews, participant observation, and surveys. This allows the reader to conceive Middle Eastern society and politics through a bottom-up perspective. By analyzing diaspora through rich, qualitative case studies, the authors reflect the dynamic nature of diasporic identity formation, which is influenced by host state and homeland contexts. The authors demand that readers view diaspora not in substantialist terms as a bounded entity but rather as a category of practice, as a claim or an idiom (Rogers Brubaker, “The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28 [2005]: 1–19).
Homeland is central to diasporic identity because the very essence of diasporic consciousness is closely tied to diaspora groups’ geographical and ancestral roots. While the homeland occupies a central position in diasporic identity, as many essays in the book suggest, the image of homeland may change due to a variety of reasons, which in turn reshape diasporic identity. The latter can also be reshaped by changes in the host state context, a point well emphasized in the articles. In “Model Citizens or a Fifth Column? Greek Orthodox (Rum) Communities in Syria and Turkey between Secularism and Multiculturalism,” Haris Theodorelis-Rigas analyzes the impact of policies of different host states on the identity of the rūm (Greek) through a comparison of Syria and Turkey (Hatay and Istanbul) as host states. The author discusses rūm-ness in two separate ways: in ethnocultural and in confessional terms. According to Rigas, for the Antakya rūms, who migrated to Istanbul and abroad, Antakya serves as the homeland in their collective memory as the center of their identity.
In “Muhammad Farid: Between Nationalism and the Egyptian-Ottoman Diaspora,” Ehud Toledano effectively illustrates how host state and homeland categories in the mind of a diaspora can become substitutes for each other in different circumstances. Toledano focuses on Muhammad Farid, a person socialized among the Ottoman-Egyptian elite in Egypt who later defined himself first as an Ottoman-Egyptian and then as an Egyptian. The case of Farid is reflective of the many members of the ruling Ottoman-Egyptian elite at the end of the 19th century. Under changing circumstances—such as Egypt's occupation by the British and later nominal independence—most members of the Ottoman diaspora reconfigured their host state and homeland images. As Toledano rightly argues, this case shows the malleability of diasporic identity, which is exposed to constant change due to varying circumstances.
In “Evolution of a North Caucasian Community in Late Ottoman and Republican Turkey: The Case of Anatolian Ossetians,” Georgy Chochiev discusses the Ossetian diaspora's rediscovery of its homeland brought on by changing host state and homeland contexts as well as changes in the diaspora's socioeconomic structure. Ossetians who migrated to Turkey as early as the 19th century became increasingly urbanized and educated towards the end of the subsequent century. This, along with political liberalization in Turkey after the 1980s and the collapse of the Soviet Union (where the homeland is located), allowed the Ossetians to actively become involved in diasporic activities. Homeland, once a distant dream, became more real and accessible for many Ossetians, forming a cornerstone of their collective identity.
Anthony Gorman, in “The Italians of Egypt: Return to Diaspora,” analyzes the rediasporization of Italian-Egyptians with Egypt as the center of their new diasporic identity. Italy served as the homeland for the Italian diaspora in Egypt for a long period until changes to Egypt's politics and economy forced them to leave the country. Scattered around the world, Italian-Egyptians kept the memory of Egypt as their new homeland at the center of their collective identity. By establishing Egyptian–Italian associations, they were able to clearly manifest their diasporic identity, therefore highlighting the malleability of this identity.
In “Diaspora Tourism and Identity: Subversion and Consolation in Armenian Pilgrimages to Eastern Turkey,” Zeynep Turan and Anny Bakalian argue that diaspora tourism allows Armenians to reclaim their past and reimagine their identity free of dominant host state and diaspora discourses. By challenging the dominant diaspora narrative portraying Turks as the enemy and simultaneously disclaiming Turkish government narratives, diaspora tourism helps travelers to construct a subaltern interpretation of their history and identity.
Maria Holt's “Stories of Identity and Resistance: Palestinian Women outside the Homeland” examines the centrality of homeland in Palestinian diaspora identity in Lebanon. Through storytelling, Palestinian women play a central role in passing down memories of the homeland to later generations, something that helps the community maintain boundaries. In “Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon: Worthy Lives in Unworthy Conditions,” May Farah also discusses the centrality of homeland, though in her case within the identities of Palestinian refugee youths. For the latter, homeland, while they never lived there, is crucial for survival and helps them to make sense of their lives. Homeland is a central theme in Elisa Pascucci's and Jumana Bayeh's articles as well. Whereas Pascussi studies the experiences of “waiting” among young Iraqis in Egypt, Bayeh discusses the different representations of home in the Lebanese diaspora literature.
Host state conditions also shape diasporic identity and diasporas’ interest in the homeland. This point is emphasized in M.H. Ilias's “Malayalee Migrants and Translocal Kerala Politics in the Gulf: Re-Conceptualizing the ‘Political.’” The author argues that because of the limited political and social space available for Malayalee migrants in the Gulf countries, they tend to focus on homeland politics. The Armenian community in Cyprus is likewise affected by the changing host state context—yet in a positive way. The entrance of Cyprus into the European Union brought changes to the status of the Armenian diaspora, which was recognized as a national minority in Cyprus's 1960 constitution. According to Sossie Kasbarian, the legal and policy changes following the entrance of Cyprus into the European Union empowered the Armenians and led them to more strongly emphasize their diasporic identity.
To conclude, this edited volume is an important contribution to the literature in both Middle East and diaspora studies. It would be of interest to anyone working in these fields.
