Self-governing from below: Kurdish refugees on the periphery of European societies

Dag, Veysi

Abstract

This study looks at how ordinary Kurdish refugees and asylum seekers set up self-governing formations to organise their life in border cities on the periphery of European societies. The Kurdish immigrants organise themselves into social communities that serve as autonomous social spaces in which they form and exercise self-governance, navigate through bureaucratic and structural obstacles, and regulate their cultural and social affairs. In this paper, I argue that contextual Kurdish identities and the immigrants’ capacity to respond are the fundamental components of four different models of immigrant self-governing establishments. Ideological agendas, kinship relationships, and shared spatial origins are significant contextual elements of collective identities that they use to construct three models of self-governance, whereas their responses to common concerns drive them to form a fate-based model of self-governance. Based on ethnographic field research and 76 in-depth interviews with Kurdish refugees and asylum seekers in bordering cities in Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, the article illuminates four self-governing models of ordinary Kurdish immigrants, their various patterns and identities, as well as internal dynamics. It sheds light on how these self-governing models of the marginalised Kurdish immigrants arise from below to produce and regulate social life without interference from state authorities.

Citation

Dag, V. (2023). Self-governing from below: Kurdish refugees on the periphery of European societies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(15), 3920-3929. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2023.2193864

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 17, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 27, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 27, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 10, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 10, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
• Print ISSN: 1369-183X
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9451
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 15
• Pages: 3920-3929
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2023.2193864
• Keywords: Kurdish immigrants, Self-governance from below, Identities, Communities, Autonomous social spaces
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193864
• Additional Information: Data Access Statement : ‘The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Dr. Veysi Dag. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].’ The research participants are politically-persecuted refugees and asylum seekers whose asylum claims in host countries are still in process and whose family members still live in the Kurdish regions in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The data are publicly not available in order to avoid endangering the research participants or their family members. Research Ethics Panel (REP), SOAS University of London, on 26. June 2019. Approval number: the SOAS approval code: 107-vREP-(MAGYC)- 0619.