Introduction: Managing Muslim Mobilities—A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This edited collection explores the intersections between Muslim religious conceptions of space and place, increasing insecurity and mobility for millions of Muslims related to conflict and forced displacement, and the discourse of “migration management” in a range of contexts across the Muslim region—defined both territorially and spiritually. The book addresses a number of conceptual tensions and shifts in migration and forced migration policies and paradigms. We explicitly locate our thinking about the movement of Muslims in a mobilities perspective—a lens that obliges us to engage historically and critically with current policies and practices of migration management and the securitization of national borders. The mobilities turn in forced migration studies represents a shift from a bounded view of human belonging as static and rooted in specific places, toward one that recognizes that mobility is a normal state for stable populations and that people on the move do not automatically represent a pathology. Rather, the volume seeks to highlight the complex history and contemporary expression of regional connections and conflicts between Muslims that predate these borders and continue to frame movement in the region.

Our grateful appreciation to a number of scholars whose comments and suggestions have been paramount for honing our argument and this chapter. First and foremost, we would like to thank Leif Manger for his early and significant contributions to conceptualizing mobility and security in the Muslim world. We are additionally indebted to Robert Rubinstein for his help and support, to Cynthia Enloe and Kristen Williams, and to Olga Litwak for her exhaustive and welcome comments.