an association between diversity and exoticism

Focusing on contemporary Iranian artists and intellectuals, I examine the creation of collective identifications from an internal perspective. Drawing on research on migrant associations and ethnic and racial boundaries in Germany, the ethnographic account alternates between internal relations, member's participation in the transnational field of Iranian artists, and representative activities in the German public sphere. It explains how the members' unequal resources and varying politics of value caused a shift in the association's system of value. From a critique of assimilationism and the promotion of the value of diversity, the group came to largely comply with the system of value prevailing in the German public sphere, sustained by its intersection with the one that shapes the transnational social field of Iranian artists

"Living in limbo": Digital narratives of migrants fleeing Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than one million Russian citizens have left Russia. This Russian migration is a political protest against Vladimir Putin’s regime — people are leaving due to their opposition to the war, persecution by authorities, and fear of mobilization — and are writing about this migration online. Despite fulfilling the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951) conditions, these Russian migrants have not yet received international recognition, and most live in total uncertainty in poor countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia with temporary visas and no possibility of entering Europe. This paper has two purposes. The first is to describe this group of migrants that challenges the definition of who is a refugee, in the context of this specific military conflict. The second purpose is to examine digital narratives published by these Russian migrants, characterized by a sense of living in uncertainty.