Journal articles on the topic 'Bangladeshi diaspora'

Based on a multi-sited ethnography in Italy and the United Kingdom, this contribution focuses on the onward migration of Italian-Bangladeshis to London, that is, Bangladeshi migrants who acquired EU citizenship in Italy and then moved to the British Capital. After the presentation of the reasons for this onward migration, the article will analyse the representation, constructed by the Italian-Bangladeshis interviewed in London, of the relationships between them (coming from different districts of Bangladesh) and the members of the “historical” British Bangladeshi community, in London since generations (originating primarily from the Bangladeshi district of Sylhet). Specifically, it will focus on the on mistrust – sometimes a fully-fledged hostility – between the two communities as it was narrated by the Italian-Bangladeshi respondents, framing it as a dichotomy between British citizens and (Southern) European citizens; as a wider dichotomy between residents of Bangladeshi origin in London, but originating from different regional contexts in Bangladesh; as an effect of the social stratification of the “Bangladeshi Diaspora” in the world.

Bangladeshi English literature consists of all those literary works written in the English language in Bangladesh and by the Bangladeshi diaspora. Some of its prominent writers are Rabindranath Tagore, Begam Rokeya,Tehmima Anam, Taslima Nasrin and so on. The name of Tagore shows that the origin of Bangladeshi literature can be traced to pre-independent Bengal. The writers of Bangladesh use English as a medium to connect to the rest of the world. It is used as a medium to contribute to the world literature. They also find it a tool to show the real conditions of Bangladesh to the world. Writers like Taslima Nasrin details many of the issues of the nation in her magnum opus Lajja. One of those issues is the violence against women in Bangladesh. In one of her interviews, she states that everything she has written is for the oppressed women of Bangladesh. She further stated that she has wrung her heart out into her words. She has consistently been criticizing the patriarchal society of the nation for its bad treatment of women.

Bangladeshi English literature consists of all those literary works written in the English language in Bangladesh and by the Bangladeshi diaspora. Some of its prominent writers are Rabindranath Tagore, Begam Rokeya,Tehmima Anam, Taslima Nasrin and so on. The name of Tagore shows that the origin of Bangladeshi literature can be traced to pre-independent Bengal. The writers of Bangladesh use English as a medium to connect to the rest of the world. It is used as a medium to contribute to the world literature. They also find it a tool to show the real conditions of Bangladesh to the world. Writers like Taslima Nasrin details many of the issues of the nation in her magnum opus Lajja. One of those issues is the violence against women in Bangladesh. In one of her interviews, she states that everything she has written is for the oppressed women of Bangladesh. She further stated that she has wrung her heart out into her words. She has consistently been criticizing the patriarchal society of the nation for its bad treatment of women.

In 1996, Appadurai argued that imagination is an essential element in the creation of cross-border political forms.Electronic media, for example, establishes links across national boundaries, linking those who move and those who stay.In his argument, these diasporic public spheres were examples of post-national political worlds and revealed the erosion of the nation-state in the face of globalisation and modernity. In this paper, I draw inspiration on this concept of diasporicpublic sphere but to show how these imaginaries are intimately tied to forms of group making and emplacement in several contexts. This argument is based on an ethnographic research about the creation of a transnational federation ofBangladeshi associations – the All European Bangladeshi Association (AEBA) – in the past decade, its main objectivesand activities. Through the analysis of an AEBA event that took place in Lisbon, I want to show the productive dialecticbetween diasporic imaginaries, group formation and emplacement processes between Portugal and Bangladesh.

The purpose of this project was to investigate, as part of an explorative-type research project, whether art – in this case music and dance – can act as a tool capable of favouring social integration within modern intercultural and multi-religious social contexts, while, at the same time, fostering cohesion between the members of Italy’s largest Bangladeshi community, that of Rome. The researcher chose a qualitative methodological approach, grounded in participant observation of social, political Bangladeshi events and religious Festivals held in Rome, as well as investigation of lessons in singing, instrumental music and private dancing lessons conducted by the Sanchari Sangeetayan School and promoted by the new generations of Bangladeshi resident in Rome.

Arab Awakening or Arab Spring has caught the imagination of many and has been a subject of intense discussions both at home and abroad. But then what impact did it have outside the Arab world, indeed, in places which remains related to it theologically, economically, socially, gastronomically, through ideas and dogmas such as Bangladesh? Will the impact be limited to politics or will it include the religious discourses as well? Will it boost the economy or see a decline? What about the Bangladeshi diaspora in the Middle East-will it play a different role and contribute to the economic and social discourses back home now that the Arab world is on the way of experiencing greater freedom? Will it transform the religious discourses that have lately infected Bangladesh? Or, will the spirit of the Arab spring be used for narrow political goals? Answers, however, may not be as easy as the queries. The article will try to explain as to why that is the case.

This special issue stems from a panel we organised at the European Conference on South Asian Studies in 2018, under the title ‘Banglascapes in Southern Europe: comparative perspectives’. Not all the panel participants from that conference feature in this special issue, and not all the authors included here were present at the conference. Nevertheless, the panel represents a first important moment in which we began to collect case-studies and insights on a relatively new aspect of the so-called Bengali, or Bangladeshi, ‘diaspora’.

This study explores historic class-based obstacles in the dispensation of secular pedagogy in the Bengal region with the objective of presenting a better understating of the present pedagogical positioning of the British Bangladeshi diaspora of Tower Hamlets. This study charts the visitation of symbolic violence in the historical development of pedagogy under colonial rule and continues into the East Pakistan period. Through the application of Pierre Bourdieu’s primary thinking tools the discussion asserts Muslim Bengalis were educationally marginalised by both colonialists and local elites in the realisation of human capital consumption.

This article explores the experiences of ‘home’ for British-born Bangladeshi children who are active members of transnational families. The article illustrates that these children, who are mobile between Sylhet and London, play an active role in maintaining transnational linkages. The article critiques the omission of children’s perspectives in understanding ideas and practices of ‘home’ within the diaspora and among transnational families. A key finding is that while children identify Sylhet and London as ‘home’, the experience of these places differs in accordance with the different social relations, practices and material circumstances through which they experience these places.

This contribution discusses the relationship between sport and citizenship by exploring the citizenship paths described by young cricketers of Bangladeshi origin living in Venice (Italy). In particular, it focuses on the processes of misrecognition, enacted both by natives and their older countrymen, that these youths are suffering in their everyday life and that are rooted and reflected in their playing cricket in the neighbourhood. Starting from these premises, their aspired citizenship paths are described, revealing how the European passport, often an aspiration in itself, may become a passe-partout to react to misrecognition, allowing them to describe aspirations, reflected also in their sports practices, that are nationally, transnationally and globally deployed and that may aim, although through an individual claim, to restore the disruptions lived by the whole Bangladeshi diaspora. In this sense, within their distinctive aspired citizenship paths, the borders between distinction/integration with their older countrymen and native people are blurred, thus revealing their willingness to enjoy the same rights as their native peers as well as to overcome the differential inclusion suffered by their parents.

This paper explores how tourism can be understood as an opportunity to develop sustainable enterprise, providing business opportunities while also advancing social and environmental goals. While every country has multiple challenges to manage in the future, we argue that comprehensive planning for sustainable tourism can integrate several policy goals and realize compounded benefits as governments declare their commitment to ‘build back better.’ The need to plan for sustainable development is especially salient in the wake of the pandemic, and with climate change looming. Using Bangladesh as our case study, we consider how integrated and cross-sectoral planning for tourism could help provide more opportunities for visitors to appreciate the rich resources located there, such as the cultural heritage, and the rare species and mangroves of the Sundarbans, while simultaneously advancing policy goals for social welfare and the environment. We outline opportunities on the horizon, and by drawing on demographic data about the Bangladeshi diaspora, it becomes clear that heritage tourism has potential and merits further study. Finally, targeting the expansion of sustainable livelihoods can strengthen local economies and simultaneously help Bangladesh advance its efforts toward related national goals, including the UN’s SDGs (United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals).

This research explores the psychoanalytical aspects of the lives of South Asian immigrant characters in the novel Brick Lane (2003). The novel highlights the theme of migration, describing the shock of arrival, the process of settlement, and the subsequent problems involved in the transition from one country to another, as well as from a rural environment to an urban. This research explores cultural issues related to migrant diaspora living in London. The novel constructs a detailed exploration of the psychological responses of particular individuals to the traumas of migration and marginalization, alongside an investigation of the psychological roots of the current conflicts between different ethnic and religious groups. This research represents an interdisciplinary study, combining a detailed reading of Brick Lane with recent psychoanalytic analyses of personality development and the effects of geographical displacement and migration on the individual and collective psyche. Salman Akhtar’s work on the psychological causes and consequences of migration is used as a major theoretical framework in this research. The novel is mainly concerned with the personal development of a protagonist Bangladeshi woman, Nazneen, in England. This paper presents the diasporic consciousness along with the psychoanalytical perspectives of the migrants of the South Asian region and how they face the issues of cultural ambivalence.

The scope of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how Bangladeshi migrants in Italy maintain transnational family attachments, across multiple destinations, with the home country as well as with several host countries. The data comes from fieldwork in Northeast Italy. Research methods include in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings reveal that a high proportion of Bangladeshi migrants maintain a variety of transnational and diasporic ties with their family and friends living in the country of origin and different European countries. These include family obligations, remittances, establishing businesses back home, visits and communication. They also preserve their national identity in this host society by maintaining cultural ways of belonging and through religious practices and involvement in Bangladeshi politics. The findings have also shown that Italian Bangladeshi families work to foster transnational family ties among the new generations born in Italy, who have little knowledge of their ancestral country. On a final note, this paper argues that transnational connections with the homeland play an important role in shaping the diasporic lives of Bangladeshis in Italy.

This study is aimed at finding a narrative of Muslim self-aftermath of 9/11 in the West when it was swept with hatred against Muslims leading to the rise of Islamophobia which is herself experienced by the novelist, Monica Ali. Penning from her own experience, the novel, Brick Lane (2003) can be considered as real experience of many people who were held responsible for crime committed. This study employs descriptive qualitative method in dealing with the rise of islamophobia in the West after the incident of 9/11. This is the textual analysis of the experiences of diasporic Muslim couple from Bangladesh living in London and being the witness of the rise of xenophobia in the form of islamophobia aftermath of 9/11. This evaluation and interpretation are importance in the contemporary scenario as there is a continuous rise of such incidents in Europe and America in different ways. The outcome of these incidents is that it is mostly the innocent Muslims who are being attacked for a crime committed by others.The result shows the bitter experience of simple Bangladeshi Muslims immigrant who struggled for identity crisis in a multicultural highly educated world. It also reflects the personal experiences of writer herself as she being a Bangladeshi is living in West. The result was evaluated by examining Bangladeshi immigrant characters and their various circumstances and situations in the novel. Moreover, the point is that people of South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan prefer to live and work in West for better standard of living, education and job prospects.

Literary representations of historical events have, in the past few years, witnessed a radically new orientation, particularly with the strengthening of the feminist perspective that sought to address a longstanding gap in history writing in India- the silencing of marginal voices including those of women, children and various minority communities of society. In short, the muffling of the human dimension of history. Tehmima Anam’s A Golden Age, published in 2007, and winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ prize in 2008, is in this context a rare achievement in that her fictional narrative is set against the backdrop of the war that culminated in the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation but more significantly, it is told from a diasporic Bangladeshi woman’s perspective. By offering a personal and subjective perspective on history through a woman narrator, the author breaks free from the traditional narratives of history that centre around the political and communal aspects and extreme experiences and sensitizes the reader to alternative forms of viewing history as it intrudes into the private world of a woman.

Purpose – Using human capital theory and resource-based view (RBV), the authors argue that individuals and societies derive economic benefits from investments in people (Becker, 1992; Sweetland, 1996), thus effective management of talent is critical for economic development (Lepak and Snell, 2002; Khilji, 2012a). Next, the authors review governmental policies in three of the world's most populous countries, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, in order to highlight their national talent development efforts. The authors discuss how each country is meeting the challenge of making the talent they own, as well as buying diaspora talent in order to strengthen their local capabilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted a comparative analysis approach in order to frame our arguments and discussion. Findings – The paper finds that Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have implemented a wide range of initiatives, from skill development programs to citizenship policies for its diaspora, in order to upgrade their local capabilities. In addition, these countries are simultaneously using inclusive, exclusive, and subject dimensions (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2013) in developing their national talent. The paper highlights prevalence of the paradox of development and retention particularly in Bangladesh and Pakistan, where youth is also being trained to emigrate. Research limitations/implications – Global talent management (GTM) has become an increasingly important policy initiative, in view of a global generational divide that will require youth-rich emerging economies and aging developed countries to implement policies that help them meet global talent needs. Originality/value – This commentary advances a macro GTM view, and argues in favor of promoting a policy perspective to better connect policy, research and practice that may lead to maximizing human potential globally and addressing global talent shortages.

Islam has been wrongly interpreted by representing it synonymous with terrorand “the Muslim,” as Hamid Dabashi maintains in Norway: Muslims andMetaphors (2011), “is a metaphor of menace, banality and terror everywhere”(p. 2). Consequently, Muslims in and beyond South Asia are being stigmatizedby the newly constituted environment known in the western scheme of thingsas “Islamophobia.” The state of disgrace and misery of Muslims continues toincrease and is being facilitated by the biased ideas and thoughts propoundedby some journalists and writers to construct often misleading and one-dimensional images. This had led to Muslims being harassed, dishonored,and rebuked. The present book evinces their increasingly stereotyped and demonizedportrayal.Imagining Muslims in South Asia and the Diaspora is a critical evaluationand analysis of representations of these Muslims in literature, the media, culture,and cinema. The essays highlight their diverse representations and therange of approaches to questions concerning their religious and cultural identityas well as secular discourse. In addition they contextualize the depictionsagainst the burgeoning post-9/11 artistic interest in Islam and against culturalresponses to earlier crises in the Subcontinent, including the 1947 partition,the 1971 war and subsequent secession of Bangladesh, the 1992 Ayodhyariots, the 2002 Gujarat genocide, and the ongoing tension in Indian-occupiedKashmir ...

The article presents the results of a study of British Muslims and multiculturalism in the context of national identity in modern Britain. The authors investigate the mechanisms, strategies and roles of religious, social and gender identities of modern “British Muslim women”, British citizens and residents of cities such as London, Manchester, Oldham, and Bradford. The article focuses on the so-called “third generation” of Muslim women of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin, born and educated in Britain, the so-called Britons “in-between”, and their Britishness. The authors show that British Islam today represents not so much a danger of radicalization, cultural segregation, anti-secular tendencies contrary to British culture—or is breaking with cultural and family connections between different generations within the “immigrant” community. Rather, it is a resource for uniting disparate ethnic communities, contributing to the success of the young generation’s social competition with representatives of “indigenous peoples”, personalization and the reduction of religious radicalization. The study is based on a variety of textual, visual and material sources, as well as original research data (70 in-depth interviews, 52 respondents) from the field seasons of 2012–2020 in the UK’s Pakistan-Bangladeshi regions of Rusholm and Longsite in Manchester, Glodwick in Oldham, Pakistani Manningham in Bradford in Northern England, and the Bangladeshi Tower Helmets in London.

India is known for its huge diaspora of over 20 million people outside of the country, (MEA: 2002), whose growing importance has stimulated the development of a specific governmental structure to relate with it. At the same time India is known for receiving several migrants from different South Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, that is associated with “illegal immigration” and human trafficking. In turn, illegal immigration has been a burning issue in the North East of India associated with serious socio-political implications. Though India and Bangladesh depict different positions on the subject, they have put into practice a joint Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP), ned in July 2011, besides managing a ‘Task Force of Bangladesh and India for Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Integration of Trafficked victims/survivors’. The subject has precipitated questions on security in terms of, both, the states as well as the human beings involved/affected. Considering the above mentioned, this paper aims at analyzing the characteristic of illegal migration from Bangladesh to India by means of the analysis of documents and the review of literature on the subject. Taking up the dynamics of the contemporary positions of both the countires this research offers a critical analysis of the politically sensitive issue. Having signed an agreement on the enclaves issue and the renewal of the bilateral commerce, the two contiguous neihbours also highlight the need to monitor the border in a more effective way, and disable the policy of ‘vote bank’ amidst their other concerns. It seems worthy of attention therefore, that India and Bangladesh work for a more comprehensive approach to the question of security. It would be interesting to see if such an approach between them could also include on board, the issues connected with the development and empowerment of subjects and regions, both as a strategy and as a response to the subject.

Bharati Mukherjee and Monica Ali are both diasporic writers, from India and Bangladesh, respectively. Although Mukherjee’s growing up years were spent in India, it was her experience an immigrant in Canada, where she spent almost fourteen years of her life from 1966 to 1980, which provided her with the themes of her novels. The racism she encountered in Canada forced her to focus on issues such as cultural conflict, alienation, and gender discrimination, even gender violence. Her novel Jasmine encapsulates the experience of an Indian female immigrant to the US who despite various odds and hurdles, is able to survive and prevail. Monica Ali, a Dhaka born British writer, takes up gender problems as well as the issues of migrant community of Bangladesh and was hailed as the best of ‘young British novelists’ in 2003 for her debut novel Brick Lane. The novel explores the life of Nazneen, an immigrant in London, who becomes an embodiment of cultural conflict between east and west. The paper aims to bring out the fact that both women protagonists, Nazneen and Jasmine, as immigrants, adapt and survive due to the status of being the ‘other,’ which has been accorded to them since birth. Gender discrimination, which is a part of their life, turns them into fighters and survivors. The ‘otherness’ of their status, helps them acclimatise, while highlighting the commonality of their experience in terms of both, as females and immigrants.

“Only in the eyes of the law are we indians.” With these words Anu Chairman sketched the position of tens of thousands of people living beyond the reach of state and nation in dozens of enclaves in South Asia. Much of the recent wave of literature on the nation is concerned with critiquing an earlier generation of scholars who tended to assume a correspondence between nations and states. In the new literature, the connections among nation, state, territory, sovereignty, history, and identity are all problematized. Nations are seen as being socially constructed in many different ways. Thus, there are nations without states, new nations that are invented before our eyes while older ones disintegrate, and older diasporic nations that are being joined by a host of new transnational communities. Nations are now conceived as more fluid, malleable, and unpredictable than ever before.

AbstractThis study seeks to illuminate patterns of refugee settlement in the Bengali Muslim diaspora since 1947, which replicate global trends identified by Aristide Zolberg in new nation-states. Based on historical research and oral testimony gathered from over two hundred migrants in different settings in India, Bangladesh, and Britain, it suggests why some Muslims crossed borders after India's partition and others did not; why most moved only short distances within the delta; and why so many huddled in the shadow of the new national borders and so few traveled to the West. I uncover the subtle interplay between migrants' agency and structures of coercion, and between histories of mobility and of affect, in the shaping of migration choices, and explain how the recurrent patterns identified by Zolberg were produced in a regional context of critical but unexplored significance. The essay explores the impact of nation-state formation on older forms of mobility in the region, and the continuing interconnections between local micro-mobilities and regional, national, international, and trans-oceanic migrations. I suggest that the concept of “mobility capital” can help to explain not only patterns of migration, but also patterns of staying on. I conclude by questioning “cumulative causation theory,” which has inadvertently lent credence to fears that the developed countries of the West will be “swamped” by immigrants drawn from ever-expanding migratory networks based in the “third world.”

Objective – The heritage of ginans of the Nizari Ismaili community comprises hymn-like poems in various Indic dialects that were transmitted orally. Despite originating in the Indian subcontinent, the ginans continue to be cherished by the community in the Western diaspora. As part of a study at the University of Saskatchewan, an online survey of the Ismaili community was conducted in 2020 to gather sentiments toward the ginans in the Western diaspora. This article presents the results of the survey to explore the future of the ginans from the perspective of the English-speaking Ismaili community members. Methods – An online survey was developed to solicit the needs of the global Ismaili community using convenience sampling. The survey attracted 515 participants from over 20 countries around the world. The English-speaking members of the Ismaili community between 18 to 44 years of age living in Western countries were designated as the target group for this study. The survey responses of the target group (n = 71) were then benchmarked against all other respondents categorized as the general group (n = 444). Results – Overall, 85% of the respondents of the survey were from the diaspora and 15% were from the countries of South Asia including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The survey found that 97% of the target group respondents preferred English materials for learning and understanding the ginans compared to 91% in the general group. Having access to online ginan materials was expressed as a dire need by respondents in the two groups. The survey also revealed that over 90% of the respondents preferred to access private and external ginan websites rather than the official community institutional websites. In addition, the survey validated the unified expectations of the community to see ginans become an educational and scholarly priority of its institutions. Conclusion – Based on the survey results, it can be concluded that the respondents in the target group are educated citizens of English-speaking countries and regard the heritage of ginans to be an important part of their lives. They value the emotive and performative aspects of the tradition that help them express their devotion and solidarity to the Ismaili faith and community. They remain highly concerned about the future of the ginans and fear that the teachings of the ginans may be lost due to lack of attention and action by the community institutions. The development and dissemination of curriculum-based educational programs and resources for the ginans emerged as the most urgent and unmet expectation among the survey respondents. The article also identifies actions that the community institutions can take to ensure continued transmission and preservation of the ginans in the Western diaspora.

IntroductionRohingya diaspora are one of the most vulnerable groups seeking refuge in camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, arising an acute humanitarian crisis. More than half of the Rohingya refugees are women and adolescent girls requiring quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Minimum initial service package of SRH are being rendered in the refugee camps; however, WHO is aiming to provide integrated comprehensive SRH services to meet the unmet needs of this most vulnerable group. For sustainable and successful implementation of such comprehensive SRH service packages, a critical first step is to undertake a situation analysis and understand the current dimensions and capture the lessons learnt on their SRH-specific needs and implementation challenges. This situation analysis is pertinent in current humanitarian condition and will provide an overview of the needs, availability and delivery of SRH services for adolescent girls and women, barriers in accessing and providing those services in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and similar humanitarian contexts.Methods and analysisA concurrent mixed-methods design will be used in this study. A community-based household survey coupled with facility assessments as well as qualitative in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions will be conducted with community people of Rohingya refugee camps and relevant stakeholders providing SRH services to Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Survey data will be analysed using univariate, bivariate and multivariable regression statistics. Descriptive analysis will be done for facility assessment and thematic analysis will be conducted with qualitative data.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval from Institutional Review Board of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (2018-017-IR) has been obtained. Findings from this research will be disseminated through presentations in local, national and international conferences, workshops, peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs and interactive project report.

Abstract Hamtramck, Michigan, is the first Muslim-majority city in the US, has the nation's first all Muslim city council, and likely boasts the highest number of mosques per capita as well. Yet as recently as the 1970s, Hamtramck was the center of the Polish diaspora, and was home instead to the nation's highest concentration of bars. Muslim entrepreneurs, primarily from Yemen and Bangladesh, stand poised to revitalize Hamtramck's economy by investing in the city's growing halal marketplace. This article explores two recent efforts to revitalize the city's economy, especially its downtown business district, and the ways in which conflicts over space there are quickly translated into an idiom of religious belonging or exclusion. The symbiotic relationship that exists in metro Detroit between mosques and small businesses may be a healthy one in economic terms, but it also extends the sphere of cultural and religious praxis for Muslims and non-Muslims alike and is therefore met with resistance by many of the same people who consume, market, and embody this distinction, even as they also work to disrupt and redefine what it means.

AbstractAlthough the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) schemes have existed for some time, they began to serve a political and economic purpose for the Republic of India with the arrival of the twenty-first century. The OCI status asserts “Indianness” as a legible quality in diasporic memory. It does the work of cementing political Indo-Pakistani and Indo-Bangladeshi borders, while coopting the language of transnationalism to bolster the fundamentally nationalist regime of capitalism at work in the Republic of India. The goal of this regime is to promote a functionally nationalist, and thus, anti-transnational reality. As more generations of South Asians live and grow up abroad, creating a legible “Indianness” functions as a service to the capitalist Indian economy. These individuals abroad are encouraged to identify as diasporic “Indians” who must engage with their “motherland.” Thus, the transnationalist discourse of decreasing territoriality is exploited by the Indian state to serve goals that function in ideological opposition to transnationalism. As this discourse of legible “Indianness” becomes more successful, there will be increasing incentives for the ruling party in India to further privilege OCIs. In the end, the language and capital of the OCIs affirms the powers of capitalism contemporary Indian nation-state.

South Asia (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) has produced some of the greatest Islamic thinkers, such as Shah Wali Allah (sometimes also spelled Waliullah; 1702–1763) who is considered one of the originators of pan-Islamism, Rahmatullah Kairanwi (1818–1892), Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), Syed Abul A’la Mawdudi (also spelled Maududi; 1903–1979), and Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (1914–1999), who have all played a pivotal role in shaping political Islam and have all had global impact. Islamism is intertwined with Muslim antisemitism. Some of the greatest Islamist movements have their bases in South Asia, such as Tablīghi Jamā’at—the largest Sunni Muslim revivalist (daw’a) movement in the world—and Jamā’at-i-Islāmi—a prototype of political Islam in South Asia. The region is home to some of the most important institutions of Islamic theological studies: Darul Ulūm Deoband, the alleged source of ideological inspiration to the Taliban, and Nadwātu’l-’Ulamā and Firangi Mahal, whose curricula are followed by seminaries across the world attended by South Asian Muslims in their diaspora. Some of the most popular Muslim televangelists have come from South Asia, such as Israr Ahmed (1932–2010) and Zakir Naik (b. 1965). This paper gives an introductory overview of antisemitism in the Muslim intellectual discourse in South Asia.

Since the turn of the century, young people’s aspirations have featured prominently in UK education policy and practice. Governments of all sides have espoused a rhetoric and enacted initiatives which have tended to focus on somehow ‘correcting’ the aspirations of students of working-class and minority ethnic origins. This paper applies a Bourdieusian framework to the analysis of the education and career aspirations of British-born young women of Bangladeshi heritage in higher education. In doing so, it advances a theoretically informed understanding of aspirations, which accounts for the multiple factors that contribute to shape them as well as for the relative implications in terms of future pathways. Drawing on interviews with 21 female undergraduate students, and building on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and capital, I conceptualise aspirations as an aspect of habitus. I argue that this conceptualisation allows light to be shed on the ways in which multiple, intersecting dimensions of social identity and social structures play out in the shaping, re-shaping and possibly fading of aspirations. Additionally, it enables us to examine the mutually informing influences of aspirations and capital on practice. Findings indicate that the valuing of education and social mobility expressed by those of Bangladeshi and other minority ethnic origins are integral to collective constructions of ‘what people like us do’, which are grounded in diasporic discourses. They also illuminate the significance of social and cultural capital for young people’s capacity to aspire and actualise aspirations, as these contribute to delineate their ‘horizons for action’. This suggests that by failing to adequately recognise how structural inequalities inform differential access to valued capital, prevailing policy and practitioners’ approaches attribute excessive responsibility to students and their parents. The notion of ‘known routes’ is in this respect put forward as a way to make sense of aspirations, expectations and pathways, and the role of institutions in forging possible futures is highlighted.

During humanitarian emergencies, such as the forced displacement of the Rohingya diaspora, women and adolescent girls become highly vulnerable to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues and abuse. Although sensitive in nature, community-driven information is essential for designing and delivering effective community-centric SRH services. This article provides an overview of the theoretical framework and methodologies used to investigate SRH needs, barriers, and challenges in service-delivery and utilization in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. It also offers insights on important methodological and ethical factors to consider while conducting research in a similar context. A concurrent mixed-method study was undertaken in ten randomly selected Rohingya refugee camps between July and November 2018. The design consisted of a cross-sectional household survey of 403 Rohingya adolescent girls and women, along with an assessment of 29 healthcare facilities. The team also completed in-depth interviews with nine adolescent girls, 10 women, nine formal and nine informal healthcare providers, key informant interviews with seven key stakeholders and seven influential community members. Lastly, three focus group discussions were undertaken with a group of 18 Rohingya men. Our theoretical framework drew from the socio-ecological models developed by Karl Blanchet and colleagues (2017) insofar as they considered a multiplicity of related contextual and cross-cutting factors. Building good rapport with community gatekeepers was key in accessing and sustaining the relationship with the various respondents. The data collected through such context-specific research approaches is critical in designing community-centric service-delivery mechanisms, and culturally and gender-sensitive SRH interventions in humanitarian crises.

This article analyzes Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines to examine a narrative gap at its heart that conceals the central fact of the death of Tridib, arguably the most important character in the text. The novel concentrates on the Partition of Bengal and its impact on people from different countries and nationalities in Asia and Europe. Accommodating the story of three generations of people in three cities--Dhaka, Calcutta, and London--The Shadow Lines shows the interaction of characters belonging to Hindu, Muslim, and Christian faith. Important events in the text revolve around the family of Mayadebi, her sister Tha’mma and the Prices, their English friends. The narrative begins in 1939 and ends in 1964, connecting the Second World War, the Partition in 1947, and the riots of 1964 in Calcutta and Dhaka. Using Tha’mma, the grandmother of the unnamed narrator, as the connecting link between their pre-modern life before Partition in Dhaka and diasporic life in post-Partition Calcutta, The Shadow Lines depicts the traumatic suffering of characters from different nationalities but mainly from India and Bangladesh. The paper argues that the silence and secrecy maintained by Tha’mma and others about Tridib’s death mirrors the silence of official history concerning violence in their narrative of civilization, freedom, and progress which Ghosh unravels to produce a novelistic revisionist history that not only challenges the mainstream history but also fills the gaps it leaves.

On 10 August 2006, The National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs(NACSAA) met at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, to answer severalquestions: Do markets know best? Does the market really know? Are the richgetting richer and the poor getting poorer? Does globalization meanWesternization and/or Americanization? Are traditional societies being dissipated?As there were many speakers, I will present only brief summaries.Shabir Ahmed stated that the West uses its foreign aid to get countriesto follow its own standards and perspectives, while many members of theelites have abandoned the traditional lifestyle. On the positive side, globalizationsolves poverty through the market. Syed Akhtar asked whether globalizationwas the same as McDonaldization or Nikeification, or just aboutcultural domination and sweatshops. He sees globalization as a win-win situation,provided that a nation has the necessary “enabling conditions”: ahighly educated workforce, the rule of law, and democratic institutions.V. Balachandran reminded the audience that globalization also causesproblems. In India, this takes the form of increasing farmer suicides, shantytowns, a lack of investment in the agricultural sector, a decrease in the quality of life, and questions of who owns the country’s natural resources. JamesClad defined globalization in negative terms: It is not necessarily an acrossthe-board integration of economies, a generator of an immediately improvedsecurity environment, a trend of deepening skill sets and the development ofan industrial and an R&D culture, something new (it is a recurrent phenomenonenabled by technological advancement), or westernization, for all culturesborrow what is useful to them.Abdul Mommen claimed that the South Asian diaspora can help root outterrorism. Currently, South Asia is facing higher levels of terrorism; inAmerica and western Europe, these levels are actually declining or increasingonly marginally. Bangladesh, despite being a liberal Muslim state, is seeingits level of terrorism, as well as the number of fatalities, grow even fasterthan has been the case in the Middle East since 9/11. Vijay Sazawal spokeon self-governance and trans-nationalism in Kashmir. He pointed out thatwhile Pakistan calls for more self-rule in Indian Kashmir, it provides almostnone to its own Kashmiri citizens. He concluded that “the line of control(LOC) is more or less a pretty clean division between various ethnic entitiesthat make up the old princely state and that the current boundary can sustainregional stability even when its political future is questioned.” ...

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.