Iraqi Refugees in the Arab Muslim World: Ottoman Legacies and Orientalist Presumptions

Abstract

Movements of people in humanitarian crises in the Middle East have not been well understood in the West. History, as well as cultural ideals and expectations, have contributed to this—for the West—perplexing behavior. The subject of this chapter deals particularly with the flight of people from Iraq in the wake of the 2003 Anglo-American Invasion. It begins by considering the historical context of Iraqi migrations not only in the past decade but also in the century before that. Starting with an examination of the widespread displacement of groups in the late Ottoman period and the de-territorialized nature of belonging as an outcome of the nineteenth century millet system, it explores the various movements of people beyond the borders of the modern Iraqi nation-state ending with the last outflow in the first decade of the twenty-first century.