1st Edition

Diasporas and Homeland Conflicts A Comparative Perspective

By Bahar Baser Copyright 2015
    322 Pages
    by Routledge

    322 Pages
    by Routledge

    As violent conflicts become increasingly intra-state rather than inter-state, international migration has rendered them increasingly transnational, as protagonists from each side find themselves in new countries of residence. In spite of leaving their homeland, the grievances and grudges that existed between them are not forgotten and can be passed to the next generation. This book explores the extension of homeland conflicts into transnational space amongst diaspora groups, with particular attention to the interactions between second-generation migrants. Comparative in approach, Diasporas and Homeland Conflicts focuses on the tensions that exist between Kurdish and Turkish populations in Sweden and Germany, examining the effects of hostland policies and politics on the construction, shaping or elimination of homeland conflicts. Drawing on extensive interview material with members of diasporic communities, this book sheds fresh light on the influences exercised on conflict dynamics by state policies on migrant incorporation and multiculturalism, as well as structures of migrant organizations. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of sociology, political science and international studies with interests in migration and diaspora, integration and transnational conflict.

    Part I Importation of Homeland Conflicts to the Diaspora; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Theoretical Approaches to Diaspora Politics; Chapter 3 The Kurdish Question at Home and Abroad; Part II Setting the Scene; Chapter 4 Migrant Incorporation and Multiculturalism in Sweden and Germany; Chapter 5 The Turkish–Kurdish Question in Sweden and Germany; Part III Generational Continuation of Contentions Related to Homeland Conflicts; Chapter 6 Interactions between Turkish and Kurdish Second-Generation in Sweden; Chapter 7 The Impact of Swedish Policies and Politics on Turkish–Kurdish Diaspora Spaces; Chapter 8 A Replica of Turkey in Germany? Violent Conflict, Negative and Positive Peace; Chapter 9 The Impact of German Policies and Politics on Turkish–Kurdish Interactions; Chapter 10 Comparing Two Puzzles;

    Biography

    Bahar Baser is Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University and Swedish Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS), Sweden.

    ’Bahar Baser has written an admirable book of great significance to the study of transnational politics and the diffusion of conflict dynamics. Her carefully researched study of Turkish and Kurdish communities in Sweden and Germany provides a rich context to investigate how conflicts are imported from civil wars in the homeland. Students of comparative politics and globalization should read this account to understand how transnational processes and actors increasingly shape political outcomes in both homelands and host countries.’ Terrence Lyons, George Mason University, USA ’Bahar Baser has produced a wonderful book, which successfully combines rigorous research with searing human stories from the Kurdish/Turkish case. In the burgeoning literature in migration studies, this book should be regarded as being an indispensable addition for anyone interested in the intersections between diasporas and conflict, including students, practitioners - and hopefully some policy makers too.’ Feargal Cochrane, University of Kent, UK ’Based on extensive interviews and field research, this book makes an important critical contribution to the study of diasporas and imported conflicts. Baser’s comparative approach brilliantly reveals how opportunity structures in the host country help shape the political mobilization of diaspora groups. It should be read by students of Swedish and German politics, Kurdish politics, ethnic conflicts, and diaspora studies alike!’ Paul T. Levin, Stockholm University, Sweden 'Baser sheds new light on diaspora politics by investigating how domestic conflicts are brought into new geographies as a result of migration and how these contentions endure over generations. Looking into the diffusion of what she describes as the low-scale civil war in Turkey, the author takes on the conversion of the Kurdish/Turkish problem into domestic controversies in Sweden and Germany, two host countries to Kurdish and Turkish migrants. The book stands