- Title : Middle Eastern Migrants in East Asia: Navigation of Identity, Religion, and Belonging
- Author : Gi Yeon, Koo (HK Professor)
- Journal : Anthropology of the Middle East
- Publication Date : 2025.11.
- Abstract
This special issue of Anthropology of the Middle East examines Middle Eastern migration to East Asia, especially South Korea and Japan. Using ethnographic approaches, it explores identity formation, religious practice, belonging, and transnational family ties. Articles analyze host–migrant relations, state policy regimes, public discourse, migrant agency, and settlement trajectories among Afghan evacuees, Yemeni refugees, and Muslim entrepreneurs. Case studies include entrepreneurial networks in Japan's automotive sector, Yemeni resettlement on Jeju Island, and anti-Muslim sentiment in Korea. Together, the contributions map how policy, civil society, economic opportunity, and everyday sociocultural dynamics interact to shape integration. The issue also probes local articulations of Islamophobia and the negotiation of culture in historically homogeneous settings. It advances theory on migration, belonging, and identity in East Asia today.
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