Self-governing from below

Kurdish refugees on the periphery of European societies

Bibliographic Data

ID7843846
AuthorsVeysi Dag (0000-0002-0229-4378)
Year2023
Volume49
Issue15
Pages3920-3939
Publication date2023-09-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2023.2193864
OpenAlexW4361003429
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited54

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

Bureaucracy · Corporate governance · Ethnography · Ideology · Immigration · Kinship · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Turkey's Politics and Society

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Open DOIOpen Access