ABSTRACT
This chapter considers forced migration in Iraq in the context of state formation and reformation over the course of 100 years. It suggests that mass population movement has been a continuous feature of the history of modern Iraq, a means of control exercised by colonial and post-colonial powers, and a feature of each major effort to reshape the state. The chapter suggests that the unresolved issue of Kurdish independence may stimulate further mass movements, with implications for the Arab East and for states much further afield, notably those affected by refugee movements to Europe. It also proposes that developments in Iraq provide important evidence of the intimate association between projects of state construction and mass forced migration. When Syria was affected by movements of the Arab Spring and by intense conflict between forces loyal to the Assad regime and a range of Islamist and non-Islamist currents, the pattern changed, with new migrations across the border from Syria to Iraq.
