Maissam Nimer
Biographic Data
| ID | 4120897 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maissam Nimer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maissam |
| FAMILY NAME | Nimer |
| SIGNATURE | NIMER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Akdeniz University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9594-3463 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Migration as both trigger and response vector: Penal governance and internal mobility in Turkey
This article investigates the entanglement of internal migration, penal governance, and urban inequality through the lived experiences of individuals under probationary regimes in Antalya, Turkey. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork with 42 participants sentenced to “unpaid work for the benefit of the public” between 2018 and 2022, it analyzes how penal interventions intersect with mobility, labor precarity, and urban marginality. Building on Wacqua…
Trapped, Aspiring, Reluctant, or Precarious? Exploring Agency in Migrant Trajectories in Turkey and Morocco
Towards reflexivity in the study of mobility and diversity: Theories, positionality, and the political economy of knowledge production. Introduction to the Special Issue
The “reflexive turn” brought forth a focus on power imbalances in producing knowledge on migration that successfully raised awareness among migration researchers of their possible complicity with oppressive migration regimes. While it raised crucial questions and brought migration research into dialogue with critical traditions such as postcolonial, feminist, and race critical studies, the potential of reflexivity remains far from fully exploited…
Generating instability? The impact of the EU's hybrid migration governance in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan
This article analyses the migration agreements between the European Union (EU) and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These international policy frameworks were negotiated in tandem with one another, and all were announced in 2016. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three countries, the article argues that they fuse humanitarian elements with a bloc‐based security logic in an ad‐hoc mix that lacks substantive legitimacy in the three states, rendering…
Education and Language Policies toward Syrians in the Turkish State: Incorporation of Former Imperial Subjects into the Neo-Ottomanist Political Regime
With its imperial past, nationalist tradition, past westernization attempts, inverse orientalism toward populations from the East, and current neo-Ottomanist policies, Turkey presents an interesting case in which to examine the ideologies underlying its education system. Turkish schools began receiving a large number of Syrian refugees following the outbreak of the Syrian War in 2011. How does Turkey seek to absorb these former subjects of the Ot…
Universitaires et artistes en situation d’ exil: Tactiques et ressources face au déclassement
This article aims to capture the particularities of highly skilled migrants in situations of forced exile through an ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a period of 10 months, and composed of interviews with 36 scientists and artists exiled from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, residing in France. It highlights how these individuals often experience a new form of identity, that of an exile, while facing forms of downwards social mobility. In a situation…
We always open our doors for visitors’ — Hospitality as homemaking strategy for refugee women in Istanbul
This article examines social relations for Syrian women in Istanbul by focusing on micro-level lived relationships of hospitality. Through an ethnographic, qualitative approach to key sites of encounter, the article explores how migrants navigate a public milieu in which hospitality has partially been taken away from the local community’s moral oversight in a context of a national political discourse on hospitality. We also analyze ‘hosting’ and …
Logistification and Hyper-Precarity at the Intersection of Migration and Pandemic Governance: Refugees in the Turkish Labour Market
This article analyses the governance of migration and the Covid-19 pandemic on precarious Syrian refugees in Istanbul. Drawing from a review of state policies and interviews with refugees before and after the pandemic, we argue that the intersecting governance of migration and the pandemic compounded inequalities. While refugees initially lost their employment without notice in lockdown periods, their partial lifting revealed unequal expectations…
Sule Can, Refugee Encounters at the Turkish-Syrian Border. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2020, xvi + 154 pages
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Language learning through an intersectional lens: Gender, migrant status, and gain in symbolic capital for Syrian refugee women in Turkey
This paper sheds light on Syrian refugee women’s negotiation strategies in language learning classrooms and in their broader social contexts from an intersectional perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews and focus groups complemented by participatory observation in language classes, we use a post-structuralist approach to examine gendered language socialization. Our research combines an intersectional framework and a Bourdieusian perspective …
Migration Regime and 'Language Part of Work: Experiences of Syrian Refugees as Surplus Population in the Turkish Labor Market
The literature on migration, language and employment is dominated by the human capital approach and promotes multilingualism as a universal good. This paper examines the relationship between language and work for migrants illustrating how they are ascribed value as capital according to their position and the 'language part of work.' First, we trace a genealogy of the migration regime in relation to the labor and linguistic market of migrants in T…
Textures of Hospitality in Homes of Refugee Women in Istanbul: Tactile and Affective Dimensions of Sociality and Agency
Beyond Social Mobility: Biographies, Habitus and Responses to Changing ‘Conditions of Existence’ among University Scholarship Students
Wider access to higher education at a global level has been accompanied by growing literature on experiences of social mobility often using the concept of habitus as a theoretical tool to frame responses to changes in ‘conditions of existence’. Drawing on the case study of a scholarship programme within an elite university in Lebanon, through in-depth interviews with students and university faculty and staff, this article elaborates on the typolo…
The politics of return: Exploring the future of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Although the Syrian conflict continues, local and global stakeholders have already begun to consider the return of the six million refugees, especially as neither the option of local integration in the countries of first asylum nor that of resettlement to third countries is seen as a realistic possibility. Elaborating on the return debates in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, we relate the politicisation of this question to the growing acceptance of th…
Transforming state–civil society relations: Centralization and Externalization in Refugee Education
In the context of the arrival of Syrians as of 2011 and the subsequent humanitarian assistance received in light of the EU–Turkey deal in 2016, there has been increased control over civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey. Through the case study of language education, this paper examines the relationship between the state and CSOs as shaped by the presence of Syrian refugees and how it evolved through the autonomy of state bureaucracy. It de…
Social justice or ‘human capital’ development through higher education: Experiences of scholarship students in Lebanon
While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this ‘meritocratic’ program normalises neoliberal common sense in higher education. We put into question the prin…
Gendered socializations and critical reflexivity in an Elite University in Lebanon
Gender inequality in education has been well documented in the literature, in light of family and school socialization. We build on this literature and focus from a micro sociological perspective on the emergence of ‘critical reflexivity’ in the specific case of a group of university scholarship students in Lebanon. Through observations and in-depth interviews, we identify gender differentiated prior dispositions that influence university experie…
The politics of return: Exploring the future of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Although the Syrian conflict continues, local and global stakeholders have already begun to consider the return of the six million refugees, especially as neither the option of local integration in the countries of first asylum nor that of resettlement to third countries is seen as a realistic possibility. Elaborating on the return debates in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, we relate the politicisation of this question to the growing acceptance of th…
We always open our doors for visitors’ — Hospitality as homemaking strategy for refugee women in Istanbul
This article examines social relations for Syrian women in Istanbul by focusing on micro-level lived relationships of hospitality. Through an ethnographic, qualitative approach to key sites of encounter, the article explores how migrants navigate a public milieu in which hospitality has partially been taken away from the local community’s moral oversight in a context of a national political discourse on hospitality. We also analyze ‘hosting’ and …
Transforming state–civil society relations: Centralization and Externalization in Refugee Education
In the context of the arrival of Syrians as of 2011 and the subsequent humanitarian assistance received in light of the EU–Turkey deal in 2016, there has been increased control over civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey. Through the case study of language education, this paper examines the relationship between the state and CSOs as shaped by the presence of Syrian refugees and how it evolved through the autonomy of state bureaucracy. It de…
Logistification and Hyper-Precarity at the Intersection of Migration and Pandemic Governance: Refugees in the Turkish Labour Market
This article analyses the governance of migration and the Covid-19 pandemic on precarious Syrian refugees in Istanbul. Drawing from a review of state policies and interviews with refugees before and after the pandemic, we argue that the intersecting governance of migration and the pandemic compounded inequalities. While refugees initially lost their employment without notice in lockdown periods, their partial lifting revealed unequal expectations…
Migration Regime and 'Language Part of Work: Experiences of Syrian Refugees as Surplus Population in the Turkish Labor Market
The literature on migration, language and employment is dominated by the human capital approach and promotes multilingualism as a universal good. This paper examines the relationship between language and work for migrants illustrating how they are ascribed value as capital according to their position and the 'language part of work.' First, we trace a genealogy of the migration regime in relation to the labor and linguistic market of migrants in T…
Language learning through an intersectional lens: Gender, migrant status, and gain in symbolic capital for Syrian refugee women in Turkey
This paper sheds light on Syrian refugee women’s negotiation strategies in language learning classrooms and in their broader social contexts from an intersectional perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews and focus groups complemented by participatory observation in language classes, we use a post-structuralist approach to examine gendered language socialization. Our research combines an intersectional framework and a Bourdieusian perspective …
Universitaires et artistes en situation d’ exil: Tactiques et ressources face au déclassement
This article aims to capture the particularities of highly skilled migrants in situations of forced exile through an ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a period of 10 months, and composed of interviews with 36 scientists and artists exiled from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, residing in France. It highlights how these individuals often experience a new form of identity, that of an exile, while facing forms of downwards social mobility. In a situation…
Generating instability? The impact of the EU's hybrid migration governance in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan
This article analyses the migration agreements between the European Union (EU) and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These international policy frameworks were negotiated in tandem with one another, and all were announced in 2016. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three countries, the article argues that they fuse humanitarian elements with a bloc‐based security logic in an ad‐hoc mix that lacks substantive legitimacy in the three states, rendering…
Beyond Social Mobility: Biographies, Habitus and Responses to Changing ‘Conditions of Existence’ among University Scholarship Students
Wider access to higher education at a global level has been accompanied by growing literature on experiences of social mobility often using the concept of habitus as a theoretical tool to frame responses to changes in ‘conditions of existence’. Drawing on the case study of a scholarship programme within an elite university in Lebanon, through in-depth interviews with students and university faculty and staff, this article elaborates on the typolo…
Social justice or ‘human capital’ development through higher education: Experiences of scholarship students in Lebanon
While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this ‘meritocratic’ program normalises neoliberal common sense in higher education. We put into question the prin…
Gendered socializations and critical reflexivity in an Elite University in Lebanon
Gender inequality in education has been well documented in the literature, in light of family and school socialization. We build on this literature and focus from a micro sociological perspective on the emergence of ‘critical reflexivity’ in the specific case of a group of university scholarship students in Lebanon. Through observations and in-depth interviews, we identify gender differentiated prior dispositions that influence university experie…
Gendered socializations and critical reflexivity in an Elite University in Lebanon
Gender inequality in education has been well documented in the literature, in light of family and school socialization. We build on this literature and focus from a micro sociological perspective on the emergence of ‘critical reflexivity’ in the specific case of a group of university scholarship students in Lebanon. Through observations and in-depth interviews, we identify gender differentiated prior dispositions that influence university experie…
Social justice or ‘human capital’ development through higher education: Experiences of scholarship students in Lebanon
While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this ‘meritocratic’ program normalises neoliberal common sense in higher education. We put into question the prin…
Textures of Hospitality in Homes of Refugee Women in Istanbul: Tactile and Affective Dimensions of Sociality and Agency
Beyond Social Mobility: Biographies, Habitus and Responses to Changing ‘Conditions of Existence’ among University Scholarship Students
Wider access to higher education at a global level has been accompanied by growing literature on experiences of social mobility often using the concept of habitus as a theoretical tool to frame responses to changes in ‘conditions of existence’. Drawing on the case study of a scholarship programme within an elite university in Lebanon, through in-depth interviews with students and university faculty and staff, this article elaborates on the typolo…
The politics of return: Exploring the future of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Although the Syrian conflict continues, local and global stakeholders have already begun to consider the return of the six million refugees, especially as neither the option of local integration in the countries of first asylum nor that of resettlement to third countries is seen as a realistic possibility. Elaborating on the return debates in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, we relate the politicisation of this question to the growing acceptance of th…
Transforming state–civil society relations: Centralization and Externalization in Refugee Education
In the context of the arrival of Syrians as of 2011 and the subsequent humanitarian assistance received in light of the EU–Turkey deal in 2016, there has been increased control over civil society organizations (CSOs) in Turkey. Through the case study of language education, this paper examines the relationship between the state and CSOs as shaped by the presence of Syrian refugees and how it evolved through the autonomy of state bureaucracy. It de…
We always open our doors for visitors’ — Hospitality as homemaking strategy for refugee women in Istanbul
This article examines social relations for Syrian women in Istanbul by focusing on micro-level lived relationships of hospitality. Through an ethnographic, qualitative approach to key sites of encounter, the article explores how migrants navigate a public milieu in which hospitality has partially been taken away from the local community’s moral oversight in a context of a national political discourse on hospitality. We also analyze ‘hosting’ and …
Logistification and Hyper-Precarity at the Intersection of Migration and Pandemic Governance: Refugees in the Turkish Labour Market
This article analyses the governance of migration and the Covid-19 pandemic on precarious Syrian refugees in Istanbul. Drawing from a review of state policies and interviews with refugees before and after the pandemic, we argue that the intersecting governance of migration and the pandemic compounded inequalities. While refugees initially lost their employment without notice in lockdown periods, their partial lifting revealed unequal expectations…
Sule Can, Refugee Encounters at the Turkish-Syrian Border. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2020, xvi + 154 pages
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Language learning through an intersectional lens: Gender, migrant status, and gain in symbolic capital for Syrian refugee women in Turkey
This paper sheds light on Syrian refugee women’s negotiation strategies in language learning classrooms and in their broader social contexts from an intersectional perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews and focus groups complemented by participatory observation in language classes, we use a post-structuralist approach to examine gendered language socialization. Our research combines an intersectional framework and a Bourdieusian perspective …
Migration Regime and 'Language Part of Work: Experiences of Syrian Refugees as Surplus Population in the Turkish Labor Market
The literature on migration, language and employment is dominated by the human capital approach and promotes multilingualism as a universal good. This paper examines the relationship between language and work for migrants illustrating how they are ascribed value as capital according to their position and the 'language part of work.' First, we trace a genealogy of the migration regime in relation to the labor and linguistic market of migrants in T…
Education and Language Policies toward Syrians in the Turkish State: Incorporation of Former Imperial Subjects into the Neo-Ottomanist Political Regime
With its imperial past, nationalist tradition, past westernization attempts, inverse orientalism toward populations from the East, and current neo-Ottomanist policies, Turkey presents an interesting case in which to examine the ideologies underlying its education system. Turkish schools began receiving a large number of Syrian refugees following the outbreak of the Syrian War in 2011. How does Turkey seek to absorb these former subjects of the Ot…
Universitaires et artistes en situation d’ exil: Tactiques et ressources face au déclassement
This article aims to capture the particularities of highly skilled migrants in situations of forced exile through an ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a period of 10 months, and composed of interviews with 36 scientists and artists exiled from Turkey, Syria and Iraq, residing in France. It highlights how these individuals often experience a new form of identity, that of an exile, while facing forms of downwards social mobility. In a situation…
Generating instability? The impact of the EU's hybrid migration governance in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan
This article analyses the migration agreements between the European Union (EU) and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These international policy frameworks were negotiated in tandem with one another, and all were announced in 2016. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three countries, the article argues that they fuse humanitarian elements with a bloc‐based security logic in an ad‐hoc mix that lacks substantive legitimacy in the three states, rendering…
Towards reflexivity in the study of mobility and diversity: Theories, positionality, and the political economy of knowledge production. Introduction to the Special Issue
The “reflexive turn” brought forth a focus on power imbalances in producing knowledge on migration that successfully raised awareness among migration researchers of their possible complicity with oppressive migration regimes. While it raised crucial questions and brought migration research into dialogue with critical traditions such as postcolonial, feminist, and race critical studies, the potential of reflexivity remains far from fully exploited…
Migration as both trigger and response vector: Penal governance and internal mobility in Turkey
This article investigates the entanglement of internal migration, penal governance, and urban inequality through the lived experiences of individuals under probationary regimes in Antalya, Turkey. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork with 42 participants sentenced to “unpaid work for the benefit of the public” between 2018 and 2022, it analyzes how penal interventions intersect with mobility, labor precarity, and urban marginality. Building on Wacqua…
Trapped, Aspiring, Reluctant, or Precarious? Exploring Agency in Migrant Trajectories in Turkey and Morocco
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Refugee (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works)