This paper focuses on the information practices of the Bedouin refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Much discussion has taken place concerning the displacement and impoverishment of people caused by the prolonged conflict in Syria. A topic less studied, however, is the information poverty of the refugees. To this, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Bedouin are among the most susceptible. The Bedouin have lacked access to formal education and modern media, relying on their oral tradition and tribal heritage. When people are displaced by the war, even the traditional forms of communication become endangered. While members of the more notable and influential tribes have been able to find support from their kin in other countries, others have been forced to leave their means of livelihood and flee without much assistance. In Lebanon, refugees with Bedouin background have settled especially in the Bekaa valley. Of the Bedouin who have escaped to Jordan, many have refused to settle in the large Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps, preferring to live in the sparsely populated arid region along the border. Bedouin refugee families also reside in Mafraq, while many seek seasonal agricultural work in the Jordan Valley. Main concepts in this paper are "information poverty", by E. Chatman (1996, 1999), and "information source horizon", established by Sonnenwald (2001) and further studied from a phenomenological perspective by Savolainen and Kari (2004). The ”horizon” is a subjective inner view, a metaphor of an internal and complex process where the individual assesses various sources of information. I will use this concept in order to understand the processes of choosing, using, incorporating, sharing – and ignoring - new information in the construction and representation of knowledge. The main questions are, how the displacement has affected the everyday information practices and the availability of information sources, and how the people's perception of the reliability of sources has changed. Methods include structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation and written questionnaires where appropriate. I am currently doing research in Lebanon, and will conduct fieldwork in Jordan in March, while the survey in Bekaa will take place during summer and autumn 2017. The study is part of my multi-sited ethnographic project where I trace the flow of information in various nomadic communities and analyse the relationship between information behavior and social identity construction. Key words: Information poverty, information behavior, Bedouin, refugees, Jordan, Lebanon.

Drawing on my fieldwork, conducted in diverse Iranian churches in Turkey during 2015-2016 and based on documented migration stories and transit processes, I analyze the formation of migratory path for Iranian Shi'a converts to Christianity. I address the mushrooming of evangelical home-churches in Iran, harsh reaction of the Islamic Republic, transition through Turkey to seek asylum in a third country, and the resettlement. My data show that while every phase of this diasporization process is governed by particular geopolitical and legal regimes, it is nevertheless the entirety and complex interactions of the national, international, and transnational forces that forge the path for such a globalized movement of human bodies, practices, and ideas. Based on personal testimonials and lived experiences, the impetus for the new converts to seek religious freedom outside Iran is rooted in the success of Christian churches that has worried the Islamic Republic in particular its religious apparatus, resulting in crackdown and shutting down churches. This condition simultaneously and ironically provide the so-called economic migrants to strategically convert, hence instrumentalization of religion. This initial push factor is coupled with the bureaucratic migration processes in Turkey as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention. The transition period entails acquiring police permit and city assignment in order to access right to work, healthcare, and education. Nevertheless, these procedures are challenged by the overwhelming and diverse refugee crisis due to the Syrian civil war since 2013 and earlier Iraq invasion in 2003. Another important constituent of the migratory path, vital in the diasporic identity formation, are transnational practices sustained by the presence of Western priests and missionaries who offer classes and hold seminars for the new converts. They also circulate a narrative in which the converts become agents of a “divine plan” to re-Christianize Turkey, “a once-Christian nation.” Other issues include the international laws, United Nations regulations, and legal systems of migrant countries most recently the anti-migration policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. These various factors produce the direction and speed of migration, and their confluence creates the preconditions for Iranian converts to leave their homes and embark on an arduous and dangerous resettlement path.

Research into civil conflict in the Middle East and North Africa region has traditionally conceptualised these conflicts as occurring between a state and one (or more) non-state actors. From this framework has come an understanding of strategic nonviolence as emerging from this relationship and occurring in response to incentives from the state. However, this ignores the complexity of increasingly internationalised conflicts. Studies of transnational activist networks (TAN) for human, environmental, and indigenous rights have conceptualised this relationship as a boomerang, in which a domestic group requests assistance from international activists to put pressure on the domestic government to change specific policies (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Further, it has been shown that groups adapt their causes and tactics to become more attractive to potential international supporters (Bob, 2006). In this paper, I will apply these insights to the relationship between Sahrawis, the international activists who support their independence, and Morocco to explain the emergence and persistence of nonviolent tactics in the Western Sahara. I do so using data collected through fieldwork in the Western Saharan refugee camps and in Europe during 2016 and 2017, focusing on research carried out during the FiSahara Film Festival in 2016 which brought over 150 activists and artists to the refugee camps, as well as 60 interviews conducted with Sahrawi cabinet members, MPs, local government officials, and foreign representatives. This research not only provides empirical insight into the dynamics of violence and nonviolence in the Western Sahara, but also makes a theoretical contribution by showing that the boomerang model can be fruitfully applied beyond the human rights context to conflicts over territorial sovereignty, leading to the conclusion that actors in conflict might instrumentally adopt nonviolence to ensure that they are able to market themselves effectively for international support. This conclusion leads to further questions about the impact of TANs on the groups with which they purport to stand in solidarity.