Louise Cainkar, “Global Arab World Migrations and Diasporas.” Arab Studies Journal Vol. XXI No. 1 (Spring 2013).
Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this article?
Louise Cainkar (LC): This article was developed from a keynote speech I delivered at the Conference on Arab World Migrations and Diasporas, organized by Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. When contemplating the keynote, I considered deeply what my particular contribution would be to a room full of multi-disciplinary scholars of Arab migrations and diasporas. I decided to focus on constructing a global context within which all of us—historians, sociologists, anthropologists, scholars of comparative literature, cultural studies, diasporas, and others—could situate our work. Such a context would allow us to converse across disciplines and theoretical frameworks, as well as begin speaking in comparative ways, which I consider useful and important. We know that there are variations and commonalities in the experiences of Arab world migrants and among Arab world diasporas; we should begin to talk about what matters and why it matters.
I also think that irrespective of disciplines, our shared concern for human dignity—which faces incredible challenges and motivates considerable action in migratory and diasporic experiences—establishes the foundation for these cross-disciplinary conversations.
J: What does the article address?
LC: The article takes on the challenge of constructing an overarching global context of Arab world migrations and diasporas from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. While one can find a plethora of numbers on Arab world migrants, the real challenge lies in finding numbers that count the same things, allowing for comparisons. After speaking to the caveats that exist around the social processes of counting and numbers, I provide comparable data on current major Arab world migrations that offer readers a sense of the proportion and range of current migratory movement. I then examine some of the major quantifiable differences across these migrations. For example, I attempt to answer the question, “How are Arab world migrants to major destinations in Europe demographically similar to and different from Arab world migrants in the US, Canada, and Australia?” Once we have established these differences and then examined the varying socio-political contexts within which they live (for example, naturalization policies), we begin to grasp the complexities that interact to produce meaningful differences in their experiences. I also present a quantitative overview of the broad reach of global Arab World diasporas, which include not just current migrants but generations going back, in some cases for centuries. While accuracy in those numbers was quite elusive, I laid out the groundwork for other scholars to revise, recognizing that one must investigate matters of definition and measurement in each place.