Migration, Family Memory, and the Tightening Borders in the Middle East

Based on biographical and family-story interviews in Amman, Jordan, my presentation deals with families whose history is strongly marked by multiple migration processes over the past three generations as well as in the present.

I will show that interpreting migration processes solely in the framework of nation states (e.g. as transnational migration) might overlook that in the Middle East, borders were only introduced gradually, and their porosity varied in different socio-historical periods. Family memories might still be permeated by memories of unhindered travel which has a positive connotation of migration for the purpose of connecting family members living spatially apart, and as a general strategy of mobility. These memories and migration practices increasingly clash with border regimes that have been gradually intensifying in many Middle Eastern countries in recent decades.

I will illustrate this argument by introducing the case of a woman (born in Syria and holding a Syrian passport) whose mother’s family resides in Jordan and who has other family members spread over the Middle East. The family memory is shaped by family members’ successful migration experiences in past generations. I will show, however, how her self-initiated process of migration from Syria to Jordan before the start of the war in Syria was later ‘belittled’ when she needed to register as a refugee in Jordan. However, the changing socio-political situation affected not only her, but the family system as a whole, changing the figurations or power relations of the family members and their terms of interaction, and creating rifts which, again, contributed to migration processes.

My research is part of a larger project on ‘Dynamic figurations of refugees, migrants, and long-time residents in Jordan since 1946: between peaceable and tension-ridden co-existence?’ which is being sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG).