Since the Iraq war, the Middle East has been in continuous upheaval, resulting in the displacement of millions of people. Arriving from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Syria in other parts of the world, the refugees show remarkable resilience and creativity amidst profound adversity. Through careful ethnography, this book vividly illustrates how refugees navigate regimes of exclusion, including cumbersome bureaucracies, financial insecurities, medical challenges, vilifying stereotypes, and threats of violence. The collection bears witness to their struggles, while also highlighting their  aspirations for safety, settlement, and social inclusion in their host societies and new homes.

Marcia C. Inhorn is William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University, where she is Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies. Her most recent publications includeAmericas Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins (Stanford, 2018) andThe New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East (Princeton, 2012).

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgements

Introduction: Un-Settling Middle Eastern RefugeesLucia Volk and Marcia C. Inhorn

Part I: (Dis)Counting Refugees

Chapter 1. When States Need Refugees: Iraqi Kurdistan and the Security AlibiKali Rubaii

Chapter 2. Navigating Precarity, Prejudice, and Return: The (Un)Settlement of Displaced Afghans in Iran and AfghanistanNaysan Adlparvar

Chapter 3. Unsettling Refugees as a Category: Labeling, Imagined Populations, and Statistics in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in BeirutGustavo Barbosa

Part II: Protesting Exclusion

Chapter 4. Middle Eastern Refugeehood in the Happiest Place on Earth: Syrians and Iraqis Entering Finlands Welfare State BureaucracyLindsay A. Gifford

Chapter 5. I Live Here; I Have a Right to be Here: An Afghan Refugees Disorientations and Insistence on Inclusion through TheaterJulie Nynne Bune

Chapter 6. Demanding their Welcome: Agency-in-Waiting at a Protest Camp in Dortmund, GermanyLucia Volk

Part III: Making Lives in Exile

Chapter 7. Living as Enduring: The Struggle for Life against the Limits of Refuge among Gaza Refugees in JordanMichael Vicente Pérez

Chapter 8. Reimagining the Arab Way in Exile: Futures Off Line among Syrian Men in AmmanEmilie Lund Mortensen

Chapter 9. Proactive Reciprocity: Educational Trajectories Reclaimed through Patterns of Care among Refugee Men in GreeceÁrdís K. Ingvars

Part IV: Seeking Health

Chapter 10. Americas Wars and Iraqis Lives: Toxic Legacies, Refugee Vulnerabilities, and Regimes of Exclusion in the United StatesMarcia C. Inhorn

Chapter 11. Regimes of Exclusion in the Reproductive Healthcare Setting: Exploring Experiences of Syrian Refugees in San Diego, CaliforniaMorgen Chalmiers

Chapter 12. Valuing Health, Negotiating Paradoxes: Medicalization of the Hymen, Hymenoplasty, and Womens Healthcare in OntarioVerena E. Kozmann

Part V: Reshaping Humanitarianism

Chapter 13. A Death Sentence? UNWRA in the Trump EraKhaldun Bshara

Chapter 14. Race, Religion, and Afghan Refugees Practices of Care in GreeceZareena A. Grewal

Chapter 15. Blurred Lines and Syrian Tea: Negotiations of Humanitarian-Refugee Relationships in FranceRachel J. Farell

Chapter 16. Inclusive Partnerships: Building Resilience Humanitarianism with Syrian Refugee Youth in JordanCatherine Panter-Brick

Conclusion: Rethinking Exclusion and Inclusion in Refugee ResettlementMarcia C. Inhorn and Lucia Volk

Index