ABSTRACT
The conference brought together more than 20 participants to discuss "the role of Diasporas, migrants and exiles in the Arab revolution and political transition.” The special issue includes a selection of seven articles, all investigating factors that contribute to social mobilization and political participation in the Arab Diasporas and also diasporic claims made upon host and home governments. The special issue presents research findings from both single-case and comparative ethnographic studies carried out between 2010 and 2014. With the media attention focused on the participation of younger European generations in the jihadist warfare in Syria, the suggested work appears more than topical and particularly timely. The theme of the diaspora politics in countries of origin has attracted growing attention from scholars of migration and transnationalism studies, foreign policies, and conflict resolution. Arab diasporic mobilizations per se cannot be analyzed as "territorial extensions" of movements created for and operating on the Arab domestic scenes.
