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Transnational Immigrant Narratives on Arab Democracy: The Case of Student Associations at UC Berkeley
Author(s) -
Fakhoury Tamirace
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12164
Subject(s) - democratization , democracy , narrative , political science , agency (philosophy) , immigration , craft , foregrounding , homeland , gender studies , sociology , political economy , politics , social science , law , geography , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology
This article analyses the discourse of Arab transnational student associations at the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) on Arab democratization. It places focus on their narratives during the 2011 uprisings. Its findings, based on interviews and qualitative data, show that these student associations craft a discursive and broader conception of Arab democracy not confined to suffrage and institutions, and extending beyond the borders of the Arab world. They further draw on various indirect mechanisms in their host land to convey their discourses and impact homeland democratization. Still, their agency remains constrained by several structural factors.