Migration Diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa : Power, Mobility, and the State

How does migration feature in states’ diplomatic agendas across the Middle East? Until recently, popular wisdom often held that migration is an important socio-economic, rather than political, phenomenon. Migration diplomacy in the Middle East counters this expectation by providing the first systematic examination of the foreign policy importance of migrants, refugees, and diasporas in the Global South. Gerasimos Tsourapas examines how emigration-related processes become embedded in governmental practices of establishing and maintaining power; how states engage with migrant and diasporic communities residing in the West; how oil-rich Arab monarchies have extended their support for a number of sending states’ ruling regimes via cooperation on labour migration; and, finally, how labour and forced migrants may serve as instruments of political leverage. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork and data collection and employing a range of case studies across the Middle East and North Africa, Tsourapas enhances existing understandings of regional migration governance in the Global South. The book identifies how the management of cross-border mobility in the Middle East is not primarily dictated by legal, moral, or human rights considerations but driven by states’ actors key concern – political power. Offering key insights into the history and current migration policy dilemmas, the book will provide both novices and specialists with fresh insights on migration into, out of, and across the modern Middle East. "How does migration feature in states' diplomatic agendas across the Middle East? Migration diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa provides the first systematic examination of the foreign policy importance of migrants, refugees, and diasporas in the Global South. Tsourapas examines how emigration-related processes become embedded in governmental practices of establishing and maintaining power; how states engage with migrant and diasporic communities residing in the West; how oil-rich Arab monarchies have extended their support for a number of sending states' ruling regimes via cooperation on labour migration; and, finally, how labour and forced migrants may serve as instruments of political leverage. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork and employing a range of case studies across the Middle East and North Africa, Tsourapas identifies how the management of cross-border mobility in the Middle East is not primarily dictated by legal, moral, or human rights considerations but driven by state actors' key concern - political power." -- From the book cover Front matter Epigraph Contents Figures and tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Analysing mobility in the Middle East from the perspective of migration diplomacy Migration and the state in the modern Middle East: a history Constructing the migrant as a subject of power in Egypt State–diaspora relations and regime security in North Africa Inter-state cooperation and labour migration to the Gulf Managing mobility as a host-state issue-linkage strategy Conclusion References Index The first major examination of the interplay between migration and foreign policy in the Middle East, this study analyses the ways through which key Arab and non-Arab states instrumentalised cross-border mobility from the mid-1950s until today. Migration diplomacy paints a complex picture of how migrants, refugees and diasporas have been subject to power politics considerations across the Global South.