New Journal Research Articles for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies 11/07/2015

• The Headscarf Debates: Conflicts of National Belonging

  “Korteweg and Yurdakul’s The Headscarf Debates is a truly exciting and valuable addition to the scholarly production on Muslim women’s veiling in Turkey and contemporary Europe (specifically France, the Netherlands, and Germany). The book’s main thesis is that the headscarf debates can only be understood from within the context of each country’s narrative of belonging, which defines who can rightly be considered part of the nation or who is an outsider. The authors further argue that the Muslim headscarf is a prime symbol of integration debates in Europe, an emblem of whether Muslims can be European citizens and if they can truly belong to each nation’s imagined community. They conclude that Muslim women’s perceived otherness is threatening mainly because it defies key concepts of European’s national narratives, challenges the survival of allegedly fixed local traditions, and offers possibilities (or opportunities, depending … “

  tags:newjournalarticles

• The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam

  “Thoughtful, engaging, and well presented, Simon Cottee’s in-depth analysis of contemporary ex-Muslims is a fantastic read. It is an astute and timely exploration of an ever-increasingly important social phenomenon: the rejection of religion. The book’s three greatest strengths are: (1) the author allows the apostates to speak for themselves, so we get to read—often in their own words—about their personal struggles, family ordeals, existential angst, life experiences, values, opinions, worldviews, etc., (2) the author provides on-going, in-depth, nuanced, and insightful analysis of the process of exiting Islam, so that the personal stories of apostasy are well examined, couched in appropriate scholarly context, and made sociologically relevant, and finally (3) the focus is on contemporary men and women living in the West (primarily Britain and Canada) who have rejected Islam—a fascinating, under-studied population, to be sure. “

  tags:newjournalarticles

• Taylor & Francis Online

  “The social field in which deportations of illegalized migrants are operationalized is often perceived to be comprised of two opposing sides that together form a deportation regime: on the one side, street-level state agents, on the other side, civil-society actors. Focusing ethnographically on deportation case managers and NGO workers in the Netherlands, a country known for its consensus politics, our study reveals significant convergences in the manners that illegalized migrants are treated by both sides in usage of terminology, handling of face-to-face interactions and worldviews on issues like belonging and justice. Given these convergences, we argue that the field in which deportation is being negotiated and practiced amounts to a continuum formed by state agents and NGO actors. We argue that a deportation continuum is underlined by shared political subjectivities and creates a sealed-off political realm that restricts the initiatives of activist citizens, imaginaries of citizenship and alternatives for deportation policies.”

  tags:newjournalarticles

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