How can the experiences of the Hazara diaspora show how discrimination, persecution and poverty can drive migration, often following migrants through the countries they travel and settle in?

Displacement of the Hazara People of Afghanistan uses lived experiences to explore the often-neglected facets of migration: that sometimes one can be a migrant without moving, that many migrants are forced to move multiple times, that the experience of migration is often intertwined with that of racism and rejection. By offering stories from different locations including smuggling across borders, seeking asylum in Europe, and facing repatriation, this book demonstrates how rejection and persecution can target different aspects of Hazara identity.

Presenting stories that challenge the dominant narratives around forced migrants, this book is ideal reading for students of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies, Sociology, Politics, and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as policy makers.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction
  • History of Hazara migration
  • The communist era 1979–1989
  • Civil war
  • The Taliban 1993–2001
  • The republic 2001–2021
  • The second coming of the Taliban
  • The consequences of migration
  • Structure of the book
• 2 A smuggler’s story: Survival and necessity in Afghan migration
  • Smuggling of migrants in Afghanistan
  • Becoming a smuggler: Saber’s story
    • A messenger
    • A Rahbalad
    • A Qachaqbar
  • Embedded realities: Some observations on the smuggling of migrants in Afghanistan
    • Perceptions of the smuggling of migrants in Afghan communities
    • Economic dependence on smuggling
    • Community versus state narratives
    • The impact of state corruption on smuggling and perceptions
    • Moral frameworks and trust networks in Afghan smuggling
    • Dependency on smugglers for survival and mobility
• 3 Living on the doorstep: The Golshahr Ghetto
  • Beyond the familiar alleys of Golshahr
  • Golshahr, a place of conflicting feelings
  • Rooting and departure
• 4 ‘Return’ as new exile
  • Forced and voluntary return
  • Accent, identity, and power
  • National labels
  • National ID (Tazkera)
  • Fluid spaces and identity
  • Re-migration
• 5 Continuous mobility: Pains and possibilities
  • English breakfast
  • Yarl’s wood immigration removal centre
  • Towards the west
  • Life in the UK as student
  • Afghanistan embassy
  • The stigmatising, criminalisation, and humiliation of applying for asylum
  • Performing asylum
  • Grant of asylum
  • After asylum
  • Transnational families
  • ‘Still water stagnates, one must not stay still’
• 6 Lessons learnt
  • Structure and agency
  • Migrant categories
  • An ongoing search for safety, the Russian doll of persecution
  • Finding a home? Return/repatriation, reintegration, or resettlement
  • Migration offers opportunities, but at what cost?
• Recommended projects
• Notes
• References
• Recommended watching
• Index

Khadija Abbasi, completed her PhD at the Geneva Graduate Institute and is working as Teaching Fellow with SOAS.

Reza Hussaini is a PhD candidate at City St George's, University of London.

Atefeh Kazemi is a PhD student in anthropology at McGill University.

Abdullah Mohammadi is an MA graduate in Demography, University of Tehran, currently working at the Mixed Migration Centre.

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