Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:25:11.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

34 - Kurdish Diaspora

A Transnational Imagined Community

from Part VII - Transversal Dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2021

By
Barzoo Eliassi
Edited by
Hamit Bozarslan ,
Cengiz Gunes  and
Veli Yadirgi
Hamit Bozarslan
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Cengiz Gunes
Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Veli Yadirgi
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Get access

Summary

Although the presence of the Kurdish diaspora is relatively new in the European contexts, it has nonetheless developed as a transnational community, enabled and facilitated by global communication technologies that can be used to politically mobilize resources in support of the Kurds in the Middle East. What makes the Kurdish diaspora a politicized diaspora is the persistent exclusionary and violence of the states against the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. It is during times of crisis and critical events that the Kurdish diaspora is materialized through its claims, lobbying and rallies across the West. Although migration can imply assimilation for many transnational communities, the Kurdish ambivalence vis-à-vis assimilation becomes tangible. It is also true that Kurds might be more receptive to assimilation due to their minoritized backgrounds in the country of origin and experiences of adaptation to the dominant culture and language. However, the political activism of diaspora and the strong attachment to Kurdish identity due to political oppression in the Middle East is a persistent reminder that Kurds have not come to the West to assimilate but to continue struggling for recognition of their identities and rights in the Middle East.

Keywords

diasporanationalismoppressionassimilationresistancestatelessnessdominant ethnicitiesforced migration
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Kurds , pp. 848 - 868
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, F. B. (2016). The growing importance of diaspora politics. Current History, 115 (784), 291–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmadzadeh, H. (2003). Nation and novel: A study of Persian and Kurdish narrative discourse. Unpublished PhD thesis, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Alinia, M. (2004). Spaces of diasporas: Kurdish identities, experiences of otherness and politics of belonging. Unpublished PhD thesis, Göteborg University.Google Scholar
Alinia, M. and Eliassi, B. (2014). Temporal and generational impact on identity, home(land) and politics of belonging among the Kurdish diaspora. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 4 (2), 73–81.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. (1992). Long-distance Nationalism: World Capitalism and the Rise of Identity Politics. Amsterdam: Center for Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Anthias, F. (1998). Evaluating ‘diaspora’: Beyond ethnicity. Sociology, 30 (3), 557–80.Google Scholar
Ayata, B. (2011). Kurdish transnational politics and Turkey’s changing Kurdish policy: The journey of Kurdish broadcasting from Europe to Turkey. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 19 (4), 523–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahram, H. (2018). Kurdish guests or Syrian refugees? Negotiating displacement, identity and belonging in the Kurdistan Region. Unpublished MA thesis, Linköping University.Google Scholar
Betts, A. and Jones, W. (2016). Mobilising the Diaspora: How Refugees Challenge Authoritarianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bozarslan, H. (2018). When the present sends back to the past: Reading the Kurdish issue in the 2010s. Middle East Critique, 27 (1), 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2011). Diasporas and conflict societies: Conflict entrepreneurs, competing interests or contributors to stability and development? Conflict, Security and Development, 11 (2), 115–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, R. (2005). The ‘diaspora’ diaspora. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28 (2), 282–99.Google Scholar
Clifford, J. (1994). Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9 (3), 302–38.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. (2008). Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Davidson, N. (2016). Nation-States: Consciousness and Competition. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Demir, I. (2012). Battling with Memleket in London: The Kurdish diaspora’s engagement with Turkey. Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38 (5), 815–31.Google Scholar
Eccarius-Kelly, V. (2002). Political movements and leverage points: Kurdish activism in the European diaspora. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 22 (1), 91–118.Google Scholar
Eccarius-Kelly, V. (2018). The Kurds in Germany. In Gunter, M. M. (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Kurds (pp. 439–50). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eliassi, B. (2013). Contesting Kurdish Identities in Sweden: Quest for Belonging among Middle Eastern Youth. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Eliassi, B. (2016). Statelessness in a world of the nation-states: The cases of Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42 (9), 1403–19.Google Scholar
Eliassi, B. (2018). Diasporic conceptions of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In Gunter, M. M. (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Kurds (pp. 425–38). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Emanuelsson, A. (2005) Diaspora global politics: Kurdish transnational networks and accommodation of nationalism. Unpublished PhD thesis, Göteborg University.Google Scholar
Ergin, M. (2012). The racialization of Kurdish identity in Turkey. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37 (2), 322–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.729672.Google Scholar
Eskander, S. B. (2006). Fayli Kurds of Baghdad and the Ba’ath regime. In Jaber, F. A. and Dawod, H. (eds), The Kurds: Nationalism and Politics (pp. 180–202). London: Saqi.Google Scholar
Fernandes, D. (2018). The Kurdish diaspora in the UK. In Gunter, M. M. (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Kurds (pp. 451–64). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Galip, Ö. B. (2014). Where is home? Re-visioning ‘Kurdistan’ and ‘diaspora’ in Kurdish novelistic discourse in Sweden. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 4 (2), 82–90.Google Scholar
Griffiths, D. J. (2002). Somali and Kurdish Refugees in London: New Identities in the Diaspora. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Gunes, C. (2012). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hashemi, M. (2014). Contemporary Kurdish diaspora in Europe: A driving force toward peace and democracy in the Middle East. In Golan, G. and Salem, W. (eds), Non-state Actors in the Middle East: Factors for Peace and Democracy (pp. 117–45). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hassanpour, A. (2003). Diaspora, homeland and communication technologies. In Karim, H. K. (ed.), The Media of Diaspora (pp. 76–88). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hassanpour, A. and Mojab, S. (2005). Kurdish diaspora. In Ember, M., Ember, C. R. and Skoggard, I. (eds), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World (Vol. 1, pp. 214–25). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Houston, C. (2001). Profane intuitions: Kurdish diaspora in the Turkish city. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 12 (1), 15–31.Google Scholar
Kastoryano, R. (2004). Transnational nationalism: Redefining nation and territory. In Benhabib, S., Shapiro, I. and Petranovich, D. (eds), Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances (pp. 159–78). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kenny, K. (2013). Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Khayati, K. (2008). From victim diaspora to transborder citizenship? Diaspora formation and transnational relations among Kurds in France and Sweden. Unpublished PhD thesis, Linköping University.Google Scholar
Koinova, M. and Tsourapas, G. (2018). How do countries of origin engage migrants and diasporas? Multiple actors and comparative perspectives. International Political Science Review, 39 (3), 311–21.Google Scholar
Madih, A. A. (2007). The Kurds of Khorasan. Iran and the Caucasus, 11 (1), 11–31.Google Scholar
Mahmod, J. (2011). Designing scripts and performing Kurdishness in diaspora: The online–offline nexus. Cultural Policy, Criticism, and Management Research, 5, 72–90.Google Scholar
Markell, P. (2003). Bound by Recognition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mavroudi, E. (2018). Deconstructing diasporic mobilization at a time of crisis: Perspectives from the Palestinian and Greek diasporas. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44 (8), 1309–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowall, D. (2004). A Modern History of the Kurds. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Meho, L. I. and Kawtharani, F. W. (2005). The Kurdish community in Lebanon and their future prospects. In Ahmad, M. M. A. and Gunter, M. M. (eds), The Kurdish Question and the 2003 Iraqi War (pp. 275–348). Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.Google Scholar
Mohséni, S. (2002). Réfugiés Kurdes en France: Modes de vie et intégration. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Mügge, L. (2012). Ideologies of nationhood in sending-state transnationalism: Comparing Surinam and Turkey. Ethnicities, 13 (3), 338–58.Google Scholar
Radhakrishnan, R. (1996). Diasporic Mediations: Between Home and Location. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Ragazzi, F. (2017). Governing Diaspora in International Relations: The Transnational Politics of Croatia and Former Yugoslavia. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Safran, W. (2005). The Jewish diaspora in a comparative and theoretical perspective. Israel Studies, 10 (1), 36–60.Google Scholar
Saracoglu, C. (2009). ‘Exclusive recognition’: The new dimensions of the question of ethnicity and nationalism in Turkey. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32 (4), 640–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saracoglu, C. (2010). The changing image of the Kurds in Turkish cities: Middle-class perceptions of Kurdish migrants in Izmir. Patterns of Prejudice, 44 (3), 239–60.Google Scholar
Şenay, B. (2013). Seeing for the state: Kemalist long-distance nationalism in Australia. Nations and Nationalism, 19 (2), 376–94.Google Scholar
Shain, Y. and Barth, A. (2003). Diaspora and international relations theory. International Organization, 57 (3), 449–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheffer, G. (2003). Diaspora Politics: At Home Abroad. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sheikhmous, O. (2000). Crystallisation of a New Diaspora: Migration and Political Culture among the Kurds in Europe. Stockholm: Center for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Sheyholislami, J. (2010). Identity, language, and the new media: The Kurdish case. Language Policy, 9 (4), 289–312.Google Scholar
Sökefeld, M. (2006). Mobilizing in transnational space: A social movement approach to the formation of diaspora. Global Networks, 6 (3), 265–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soysal, Y. (1998). Citizenship and identity: Living in diasporas in post-war Europe? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23 (1), 1–15.Google Scholar
Toivanen, M. and Kivisto, P. (2014). Homing desire at the juncture of place and transnational spaces: The case of young Kurds in Finland. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 4 (2), 65–72.Google Scholar
Uguris, T. (2004). Diaspora and citizenship: Kurdish women in London. Studies in Culture, Policy and Identities, 5 (1), 137–57.Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, M. (2000). ‘Transnational aspects of the Kurdish question’. Working paper presented at Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, European University Institute.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, M. and Yildiz, A. A. (2006). The endorsement of minority rights: The role of group positions, national context, and ideological beliefs. Political Psychology, 27 (4), 527–48.Google Scholar
Wahlbeck, Ö. (1999). Kurdish Diasporas: A Comparative Study of Kurdish Communities. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wahlbeck, Ö. (2018). The future of the Kurdish diaspora. In Gunter, M. M. (ed.), Routledge Handbook on the Kurds (pp. 413–24). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Werbner, P. (2015). The boundaries of diaspora: A critical response to Brubaker. In Kläger, F. and Stierstorfer, K. (eds), Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging (pp. 35–51). Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Yadirgi, V. (2017). The Political Economy of the Kurds of Turkey: From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zetterval, C. (2013). Reluctant victims into challengers: Narratives of a Kurdish political generation in diaspora in Sweden. Unpublished PhD thesis, Lund University.Google Scholar
Zeydanlioglu, W. (2008). ‘The white Turkish man’s burden’: Orientalism, Kemalism and the Kurds in Turkey. In Rings, G. and Ife, A. (eds), Neo-colonial Mentalities in Contemporary Europe? Language and Discourse in the Construction of Identities (pp. 155–75). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Kurdish Diaspora
  • Edited by Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Cengiz Gunes, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Veli Yadirgi, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Kurds
  • Online publication: 13 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.035
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Kurdish Diaspora
  • Edited by Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Cengiz Gunes, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Veli Yadirgi, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Kurds
  • Online publication: 13 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.035
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Kurdish Diaspora
  • Edited by Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Cengiz Gunes, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Veli Yadirgi, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Kurds
  • Online publication: 13 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.035
Available formats
×