Analysis of Middle Eastern Refugee Kinetics and Concept of Hijrah under Daesh

Abstract

The theory of Post-structuralism, parts its way from traditional Neo- Realist and Neo-Liberalist theories on the notion of state as a rational actor. The reason for this departure is that this concept discards and marginalizes others, such as non-state and trans-state actors and those persecuted by their own state such as refugees. Turmoil in Middle East has created a crucial situation surrounding refugees’ issue. As per UNHCR there are almost 4.8 Million registered Syrian refugees, the total number of refugees around the globe is much higher. Besides others, Islamic State or ISIS has been instrumental in displacing such large swaths of population out of their homes. On one hand ISIS has made the stay of locals untenable creating millions of refugees, and on the other hand, they are inviting foreign fighters to move to Syria through a more traditional Islamic concept of Hijrah (literal meanings migration). These two groups (refugees and migrants) crisscross each other on spatiotemporally variable pathways as they embark on a complex and opaque social landscape. There is a need to study the kinetics of these groups based on the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors as theorized by Kunz in his theory of refugees and through the analysis of identifiable and identical set of discourses in contemporary refugee studies.