Burial and Belonging

This article explores the role that funerary practices and burial decisions play in the construction of national and political identities amongst M uslim immigrants in G ermany. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Islamic undertakers, migrant families, and religious leaders in B erlin it argues that the act of burial serves as a powerful means to assert belonging in migratory settings. While local burial laws impact the feasibility of I slamic funerary rites, this article suggests that family ties, ideas about the soil, and feelings of social exclusion play a larger role in shaping burial outcomes than the laws of the dead. By conferring a sense of fixity or permanence to identities that are more fluid or ambivalent in life, determining where a dead body belongs helps demarcate social and communal boundaries.