Women's Strategies of migration from the Maghreb to France and to the UK Immigration and social integration are gendered issues. This study focuses on women's immigration from the Maghreb to Europe. The main argument is that women differ from men in their motivations to migrate and in the strategies they employ in order to cope with the migration challenges. They also differ in the ways they understand the personal transformation from the countries of origin to the countries of destination. The study is based on the rich literature on migration, specifically, literature that relates to the migration from the Maghreb to France and to the UK. An empirical part of the study illustrates by way of interviews the various ways women employ (in comparison to men immigrants) in the efforts they invested in integration. These differences result in performances at work and career attainments, in welfare and citizenship performances. Generation differences also play a crucial role in this respect and are addressed in the empirical part of the study. The last part of the study relates to differences between the political practices of the countries of destination towards the immigrants. I found that there are parallels between contemporary policy towards the immigrants in the UK and in France and their policies in the colonial history of France and the UK in the Maghreb and the Middle East. My concluding contention is that whereas France demands assimilation in the spirit of the Republic, the UK expects the immigrants to integrate. These differences have significant implications on the nature of the individual and community life of the immigrant. This will be exemplified in the hosting countries respond to the Islamization trends, particularly focusing on gender issues.

In this paper I explore the politics of Iranian diasporic formation in Malaysia, specifically, the ways in which domestic conditions, state relations, and transnational forces are molding the religio-political discourse, social organization, and economics of this diaspora. About one hundred thousand Iranians live in Malaysia, a population that expanded exponentially after the contested Iranian presidential elections in 2009 when many reformists and alternative thinkers were threatened and sought refuge in a country that had no visa restrictions for Iranian nationals (at the time) and offered a fairly low cost of living. Based on my preliminary fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur, individual and collective Iranian diasporic identities are the outcomes of simultaneous processes of polarization and pluralization. The former refers to the production of increasingly fragmented communities among overlapping socioeconomic, political, religious, and gender categories. The latter denotes the emerging capacity in/of Iranian political discourses and modes of associational life to recognize and accept such diversities. I argue that as Iranians observe and discuss pluralism within their host country, they become exposed to varieties of political orientation and religious interpretation. Their experience provides an opportunity for the emergence of pluralism in the (semi-) private sphere that is anchored in a fragmented and polarized public sphere. I propose to provide an analysis of the linkages between these processes by explicating some of the connections between polarizing forces and sites of pluralization among students, political elites, and business owners.

Persia on a Plate utilizes institutional ethnography to examine an Iranian restaurant and grocery store in Maryland, U.S.A., named Sima Kabab House and Market. What can the interactions in these spaces reveal about the socio-political state of the Iranian diasporic community? Are the negotiations between staff and Iranian customers a type of cultural mediation, working together to intentionally construct a “perfect” Iranian identity? What are the symbols and processes that represent Iran, and are they helping or hindering the formation of a collective Persian or Iranian identity in exile? How are expressions of transnational citizenship expressed among the owners and Iranian customers? The two spaces opened up shortly after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the business is a multi-generational family enterprise. There are visible intergenerational differences characteristic of immigrant assimilation between the management of the restaurant by the original owners and their daughters. The multigenerational, family-style model is also apparent in owner-employee relations. Sima is analyzed as the site of structuration of a nostalgized Iranian/Persian cultural identity. During the course of the research, I discover that the grocery store is a site of sociality and pan-ethnic solidarity among various immigrant groups who patronize the store. Over time, using the data to make inferences about the structures and institutions that the actors and the spaces affected, I discover recurring themes. These themes include an imagined Iranian diasporic identity, “Reinvented Monarchy”, “Nostalgic Pastoralism”, aging of the diasporic population, emergence of the Post-911 diasporic Iranian generation, “Importing Iran”, and the use of food as a mediating factor for all of these themes. Future research questions to explore that can be answered through this type of ethnography include: How has the diasporic Iranian identity sublimated its desire to participate in transnational citizenship in light of the closed and adversarial politics between the Iranian autocracy and the U.S. government? How are the two historic periods of “liberal” autocracy (1997-2005), (2013-present) reflected in the civic and political activities of the Iranian diasporic community?

“American citizens of Arabic-speaking stock”: The Institute of Arab American Affairs and Questions of Identity in the Debate over Palestine The issue of identity permeates numerous aspects of the debate over Palestine, particularly in the 1940s. For recent Arab immigrants to the United States, identity was a core component in their work to obtain U.S. support for an independent Arab Palestine. This paper will investigate this struggle through the lens of the Institute of Arab American Affairs and its efforts to influence the debate over Palestine from 1944-1948. The Institute, established in 1944, was an Arab American group dedicated to introducing Americans to the Middle East. During the Palestinian debate, the Institute published prolifically, using rhetoric intended to resonate with an American audience, which reflects the competing views of Arab identity. From the beginning, the members of the Institute understood the importance of labels and self-identification. Were they Arabs, Arab Americans, or “American citizens of Arabic-speaking stock?” How could they most effectively argue their case and critique U.S. policy without being dismissed as foreign agitators? Just as importantly, what kind of identity did Americans generally ascribe to Arabs and how did that conception hurt the Arab case? How could the Institute best combat those stereotypes and preconceptions? What Arab identity should they present to Americans? This paper will show how the Institute grappled with its own sense of identity while challenging American perceptions of Arabs. By examining the publications of the Institute (pamphlets, ads, editorials, its monthly Bulletin, and so forth), one can see the common stereotypes it combated. The most prominent of these is the image of Arabs as “exotic” and “backward.” This image fit with the Zionist claim that only Jewish settlers could rehabilitate and develop Palestine and thus they should have control of the territory, a claim that was widely accepted and circulated in other American publications. The Institute spent a great deal of time countering this argument by promoting the view that Arabs were in fact on the road to modernization. Under the leadership of Executive Director Dr. Khalil Totah, the Institute also made sure to represent its critiques and suggestions as those of concerned American citizens, encouraging their chosen country to abide by its ideals and virtues in defense of the land of their birth.

This paper explores the differences in the political integration of minority communities and addresses the following question: What explains the variation in the political integration levels of different ethnic groups among American Muslims? It is a comparative study of the political integration of Turks, Moroccans and Palestinians in the Orlando metropolitan area. Some of the factors we consider are socioeconomic status, age, gender, citizenship status, tenure in the US, religiosity, and various dimensions of ethnic group dynamics. We use interviews, surveys, and participant observation techniques to investigate the research question. We argue that several dimensions of ethnicity are strong predictors of political integration and must be taken into consideration along with the often considered factors such as gender, age, tenure in the US and citizenship status at the individual level.