Peace Building Lessons From the Civilian Survival Strategy of Flight in Syria, 2011-2016

Syria is in a devastating war brought by the Arab Spring. The country witnessed perhaps the bulk of the brutalities of the Arab Spring evidenced by the massacre of civilians and obliteration of historical and valuable property. In view of the brutal and global nature of the Syrian conflict, this chapter examines the significance of flight as a survival strategy developed by the Syrians in the wake of the Syrian conflict which began in 2011. This approach is not only significant in appreciating the fact that civilians are not necessarily passive recipients of violence but also gives us an opportunity to reflect on how superpower involvement deprived Syrians of the chance to come up with home-grown solutions before the conflict degenerated into an all-out war. The civilian strategy of flight thus shows the vulnerability of civilians in conflict and the significance of local solutions and ownership of peacebuilding programmes.

HIV-Positive Latino Immigrants

Many immigrants have conflicting relationships with their families. Families can be an important source of support for immigrants facing challenges in new countries. For some immigrants however, families can also be a source of frustration and lead to feelings of being trapped in old roles. For immigrants who are men who have sex with men (MSM) the contradictions of families being sources of support or sources of frustration may be heightened. This study examines family relationships among Latino immigrants who are HIV-positive MSM who are currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. In particular, issues of disclosure around sexual orientation and HIV to families are explored.

Thinking Transnationally

Wagner College is participating in a ground-breaking project that brings migrant families together after years of separation. This project has been not only inspirational for both faculty members and students, but is also a great opportunity to learn about forced migration and alternatives to keep families together. The “Transnational Project: San Jerónimo Xayacatlán-Port Richmond” was created to connect communities in both the United States and Mexico and to preserve their cultural identities that have been threatened by forced migration. In this chapter, I would like to present the project focusing on three aspects: the history of the project, the individual stories of members who migrated and of those who stayed in their homeland, and the impact of this educational opportunity in the classroom. I will use a series of interviews with the members of Ñani Migrante (the group formed by the members of both the San Jerónimo and the Port Richmond communities), the presentations of both panels that took place at Wagner College, and the reflections of students who attended them.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

Following the Arab Spring, the Middle East is in chaos with ongoing wars in Yemen and Syria. There are millions of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon, and in European countries like Greece, Hungary, and Germany. Nonetheless, the largest proportion of Syrian refugees in hosted by neighboring countries needing continuous support of the international community. As the issue of Syrian refugees is transnational, there is a need to look for multilateral options for dealing with the crisis. Thus, the role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) becomes crucial. Irrespective of being labelled as a ‘talk fest', there is no denying of the fact that OIC has significant potential for tackling grave challenges facing the Muslim world. The problems range from extremism and radicalization to poverty and illiteracy. Now there is the emergent challenge of refugees from the Middle Eastern crisis. This paper evaluates the role of OIC with reference to the Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East and beyond.

Municipalities and Refugee Crisis

Truly, while some countries are still grappling with policy issues to do with acceptance of the refugees in their respective countries, Turkey has become a safe haven to many, a refugee. This has not only featured the ordinary aspects of food, shelter, drinking water, clothing but also services like education, health, social services and transport assistance. Even more crucially, Turkey has offered other aspects bordering on integration, rights and freedoms, representation, mainstreaming and identity which are critical to the asylum seekers. This makes them feel at home especially given that they may end up staying for a long time or even never return to their homes. Such a process requires multi-dimensional legal and administrative regulation but Turkey has always come up with its own localized version of legal settings to accommodate spontaneous issues. This is what has distinguished Turkey from all other countries in the world given its immeasurable, priceless and invaluable handling of asylum seekers.

Informality and Informalization Among Eritrean Refugees

Transnational migration has important implications on the respective country of departure and its political dynamics. This article addresses informal practices and processes of informalization during migration from dictatorially ruled Eritrea in North-East-Africa. On the base of dense ethnography among refugees and migrants in neighboring Ethiopia the article discusses migration's cultural and social effects and sheds a light on the potential role of migrants in Eritrea's expected political transition. It will be argued that refugees and migrants are unable to fully liberate themselves from Eritrea's authoritarian political culture while seeking prosperity, democracy and human rights elsewhere. Instead they blunder into informal practices such as deceit, exploitation and denial of solidarity, which inevitably backfire on social and political life.

The Geopolitics of Immigrant Labour

In general, the concept of workforce diversity has gained enormous support over the past decade, due to international politics of economic competition, technological progress, increasing emphasis on the importance of human rights, and immigration. The chapter discusses answers to the question: in the face of this consensus, why are xenophobic arguments (communicated worldwide through mass media) increasingly allowed to foster global climates of fear of, and resistance to, immigrant labour? Answers seem to lie in geopolitics and social pressures on governments that constrain them to discriminate against migrants and refugees seeking immigration. Reasons for this are discussed and possible remedies suggested.

“So, Are You Hindi?”

Immigrant children and adolescents living in the United States encounter significant stressors during the acculturation process, particularly in the schooling context. South Asian immigrants identify strongly with religious and geographic region background. This chapter investigates intersections between religion and education in U.S. South Asians' post-migration experiences in the American Midwest. Findings suggest South Asian children enrolled in U.S. schools are confronted daily by the duality between their parents' birth culture and mainstream values and traditions of the host culture. Participants and their families experience prejudice and racism in daily activities, including school. Prejudice ranges from judgments about English-speaking ability to doubts about the South Asian education system to prepare workers for U.S. jobs. Findings show religious affiliation, accent, skin color, and ethnic dress create barriers for South Asians trying to fit into everyday American society.

Migration and Alienation

This study aims to analyse how immigrants become estranged with each other and their own culture together with migration. The sampling of this study consists of film Nachtreise/Night Traveling, 2002 by Kenan Kılıç. This fictional 63 min.-film focuses on a social reality which is named as alienation. This film shows the immigrants' situation and hopelessness as distinct from the other films (by Umut Dağ and Hüseyin Tabak). The film by Kenan Kılıç presents immigrants' alienation in their post-migration processes and emphasizes the phenomenon of not belonging to their own culture. The film departs from a binary opposition and makes a reference on one hand to people's alienation and their relations, and consequently to the power, center-periphery relations while referring to social problems such as immigration, moving up into a higher class, financial troubles and unemployment on the other hand. It is clearly from this research that as a result of migration, consumerism, technology and the culture generated by a new society, immigrants become estranged with each other and the society.

Exploring Public Perceptions of Native-Born American Emigration Abroad and Renunciation of American Citizenship through Social Media

There has been little work done on American emigration abroad and even less done on the formal renunciation of American citizenship. This chapter provides an overview of both phenomena in the research literature and then provides some methods for using the extraction of social media data and their visualization as a way of tapping into the public mindsets about these social phenomena. The software tools used include the following: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel (NodeXL Basic), NVivo, and Maltego Carbon; the social media platforms used include the following: Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, and Flickr.