The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to 1917, when British Prime Minister Balfour declared Britain’s support for the establishment of a homeland for Jews in the land of Palestine. The conflict has had many political, social, and artistic implications. On the political level, a struggle that has not been solved until this day has evolved. On a social level, many lives have been crushed: thousands of native citizens of the land became refugees, mainly in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, but also worldwide. Others, like the Arabs who stayed in what was in 1948 declared to be the state of Israel, have been suffering from an identity crisis; many of these Arabs face unlawful detention, demolition of houses, killing and racism. The Gaza strip has almost always been under siege by the Israeli military machine lately. Meanwhile, the Jewish society has never had a day of peace since the establishment of their state. On the artistic level, the conflict has always had implications for Arab/ Palestinian and Israeli writings., I seek to read the depiction of the conflict with its different violent confrontations from both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives starting with the Palestinian Nakba to the violent Israeli oppression of any Palestinian resistance in the Intifada. I also read literary texts about Palestinian resistance, actual material resistance of the first Palestinian Intifada as represented by both sides in postcolonial terms. In fact, I believe that both Palestinian and Israeli literature could be read in the context of postcolonial discourse. On the one hand, for Palestinian and Arab writers, Palestinian writing is and should be read as resistance literature, or ‘Adab al-muqawamah’, a term coined by Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani. Anna Ball’s study Palestinian Literature and Film in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective examines Palestinian literature and film in the light of postcolonial feminism. Ball places the conflict in the context of colonial/ postcolonial discourse and breaks the taboo against using the word colonialism when speaking about Zionism. In fact, the research problem is based on the idea of the inadequacy of ignoring Palestinian and Israeli literature as part of postcolonial studies simply for fear of revealing the colonial status quo of the land. According to Anna Bernard, who seeks to draw attention to what she calls ‘blind spots in postcolonial studies’, mainly Israel/ Palestine: ‘by dismissing a ‘postcolonial’ approach to Israel-Palestine studies outright, [critics like] Massad and Shohat overlook the value of a literary study that seeks to demonstrate the collective and cross-cultural impact of the various modern forms of colonialism and imperialism on artistic production across the globe’. Massad’s argument that there is difficulty in describing space, time and body in Israel/ Palestine as postcolonial is based on his interrogations: ‘Can one determine the coloniality of Palestine/ Israel without noting its ‘‘post-coloniality’’ for Ashkenazi Jews? Can one determine the post-coloniality of Palestine/Israel without noting its coloniality for Palestinians? Can one determine both or either without noting the simultaneous colonizer/colonized status of Mizrahi Jews? (Although one could debate the colonized status of Mizrahi Jews) How can all these people inhabit a colonial/postcolonial space in a world that declares itself living in a post-colonial time?’ Ella Shohat, likewise, is against what she calls the ‘ahistorical and universalizing deployments, and potentially [the] depoliticizing implications’ of the term ‘post-colonial,’ especially that, according to her, it is used instead of important terms like imperialism and neo-colonialism. In spite of the importance of paying attention to the correct description of states of imperialism and neo-colonialism, I still find it possible to read both Palestinian and Israeli texts in postcolonial perspective, agreeing with Bernard ‘that the tools that have been developed for reading these texts comparatively – including colonial discourse analysis, national allegory, minority discourse, and so on – can be usefully applied, tested, and revised in the analysis of Palestinian and Israeli literary and cultural production’. This view resonates with Ashcroft, Tiffin and Griffiths’s in their study The Postcolonial Studies Reader (1995), when they comment on this wide range of relevant fields that the term postcolonial suggests: ‘Postcolonial theory involves discussion about experience of various kinds: migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, [and] place’ . In fact, the term ‘postcolonial’ is not necessarily restricted to a real colonial period; it could be used, according to Ashcroft, Tiffin and Griffiths in The Empire Writes Back: ‘to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is because there is continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression’. Between the view of the land of Palestine as a lawful possession of the Jews and that which sees Jewish presence as a settler or colonial one, a debate about reading the conflict and literary production tackling the conflict within theories of colonial and postcolonial studies arises. What makes reading the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and its literature and literary production within the paradigm of postcolonialism problematic is worth some further investigation. First, the preference and focus on the discursive practices of colonialism over the material practices has resulted in excluding the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict from the field of postcolonial studies by a number of critics like Ella Shohat and Joseph Massad, which is more elaborated on later. Second, the debate about the Zionist project as a settler colonial one could also problematize analysing the conflict within postcolonial theories. The first chapter explores the Israeli/ Palestinian and Arab writing of the conflict from a colonizer/colonized perspective. I mainly focus on the representation of violence as an essential element in a colonized society and the decolonization process, drawing on Frantz Fanon’s theory that violence is inevitable in any colonized community as the backbone of the analysis. For this purpose, I have chosen Syrian playwright Saad-Allah Wanous’s play Rape (1990), to compare with Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin’s play Murder (1997), since both plays represent violence as a vicious circle that does not lead anywhere in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, even though it is an everyday act that has become a way of life for both sides. Crucial terms in the field of postcolonial studies such as resistance/terrorism are examined. Some similarities between the ways the two playwrights write the conflict are also highlighted, which supports the idea that literature can always find shared ground between any two conflicting parties. In Chapters Two and Three I write about the history of the conflict as a chain of endless violent confrontations; violence in this case is on the national level when the two nations fight each other. Chapter Two addresses some of the landmark events in the history of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, mainly the Israeli War of Independence/Nakba as the same historical event seen from the two extremely different colonizer/colonized perspectives. The chapter also addresses what the Holocaust has to do with the two events and how the Holocaust was exploited by the Israeli state to silence any condemnation of the Israeli/Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine and later on to silence any international condemnation of the Israeli 1967 occupation of more Palestinian and Arab lands.

This thesis explores the ways in which transnational same-sex couples construe and experience transnational migration, intimacy, and home. The study was initially born out of the need to contribute to the young, but growing body of scholarly work in relation to queer migration studies. For long, the figure of ‘the migrant’ was founded on heterosexual terms only, thus impeding any possibility of exploring the lives of those with non-normative gender and sexual identities. During the last two decades or so, new scholarship has tried to alter this picture, arguing for a more inclusive assessment of global migration. This project aims to further the scholarly conversations in this regard, but it also wishes to go beyond the traditional economic and political spheres in which the migrant is usually placed in; hence, it promotes a study of migration that is also preoccupied with the intimate and emotional life of LGBT+/queer migrants. In this sense, this research is interested in how 12 transnational same-sex couples (that are also binational) understand and practice intimate life and home. Indeed, examining the life of these couples in migration offers a unique opportunity to delve into the intimate and domestic dimensions of transnational migration, and therefore, to show how the research participants actively negotiated and sustained family life and a sense of belonging in today’s rapidly changing and globalising world. The ‘transnational’ component will be key across this thesis, as it enables the possibility of understanding the couples’ different movements, attachments, networking and (emotional and material) practices that explicate and buttress their migratory journeys. The study was carried through the use of ethnographic techniques, namely, narrative interviewing, observation, and the construction of material culture narratives at the participants’ home(s). This methodological combination allowed for an in-depth and careful exploration of the individual and coupled biographies of the research participants. Particularly, this thesis illustrates how working with material culture brings richness and additional depth to empirical data, as well as it provides new opportunities for creativity and interaction with research participants. In the end, this research project chiefly aims to provide gay men, lesbians, and other non-heterosexuals in transnational relationships additional tools to reflect on their lives, sense of belonging, citizenship status, and the value that is politically and socially bestowed on to their relationships, families and overall personal commitments. Indeed, I wish to bring attention to the intimate side of migration; to the fact that migrants, like the ones in this research, have meaningful and on-going personal and interpersonal attachments and commitments. This is why I argue that studying this can be key to a deeper and better understanding of the phenomenon of migration in the 21st Century.

The question asked by this thesis is when and why, as a matter of principle, should there be judicial scrutiny on the merits of administrative decisions on migration status ('migration status decisions') in the United Kingdom? It argues that this is a moral question, engaging concerns of fair treatment. The first two chapters examine the question theoretically. It is argued that access to justice is not a gift of citizenship and that migration status decision-making should be reviewable on the merits to avoid the appearance and/or occurrence of injustice in the light of the effects of migration control on individual migrants and the nature of migration status decision-making as 'very imperfect procedural justice' (save where a decision is not based on the judgment discretion of an administrator). The latter five chapters apply the normative claims to the United Kingdom constitutional context, including the relevant European regimes (European Convention on Fundamental Rights and European Union). First, as background to the argument, a history of recourse from migration status decision-making in the UK from the initial establishment of a review system in 1905 is sketched out. The history demonstrates the absence of a coherent or principled account of migration status appeals. The history is followed by a three-part critique of the current system of recourse in the UK. First rights of appeal in three case studies (deportation, offshore visitors and students) are examined. Secondly, the three standards of review available under judicial review (rationality, anxious scrutiny and proportionality) are critiqued, and thirdly, the contribution of European and international norms is considered. In general terms the thesis concludes that the current UK system of recourse is deficient in certain respects and suggests reform to the current appeals system.

International Social Survey Programme 2003 found that about 90% of the people in Japan favour the idea of maintaining the ethnic minorities' culture, rather than their adaptation to the dominant majority's culture. It is outstandingly high percentage, compared internationally. The result is consistent with the fact that multicultural coexistence ("Tabunka kyosei") policy is welcomed in many local governments to support the immigrants. However, it contradicts to some academics' argument that Japan puts assimilative pressure to ethnic minorities. Therefore, this thesis analyses why the idea of maintaining the ethnic minorities' culture enjoys such outstanding support in Japan. The mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative study was used to solve this puzzle. International comparison based on the statistical analysis of national identity and attitude toward the ethnic minorities' culture revealed that (i) about 80% of the Japanese people have ethnic conceptualization of national identity, which is exceptionally high percentage than other countries, and (ii) the vast majority of both the people with ethnic and civic national identity favour the idea of maintaining the ethnic minorities' culture. Therefore, the qualitative analysis of interview data with schoolteachers of the immigrants' children were conducted to examine why, of which aspect and to what extent teachers expect the immigrants' children to maintain their ethnic identity and distinct culture, and expect them to adapt themselves to the dominant Japanese culture. It was found out that it is expected for the immigrants' children to maintain their ethnic minority identity and traditional culture in private, and to adapt themselves to group oriented and rule-based Japanese culture in public. However, such group orientated and rule-based culture is not regarded as "culture", but simply as "rules" to give an order to ethnic and cultural diversity. The findings of this thesis imply that multicultural coexistence is a new form of cultural nationalism in Japan ("tertiary nationalism"), meaning a nationalism which (i) has been brought about by confronting the growing ethnic and cultural diversity within a nation, particularly after '90s in Japan, and (ii) tries to preserve its rule-based culture and to spread it to the ethnic minorities by taking off its label of "culture", (iii) though not incorporating them to a member of a nation, but (iv) expecting them to maintain their ethnic identity and traditional culture in private.

This thesis consists of three chapters. The first one is an empirical assessment of the consequences of post-2004 temporary restrictions to welfare access for some European immigrants in the UK in terms of their benefits take-up and their labour supply. I provide evidence that when access to benefits is restricted, immigrants compensate for the foregone income by working more. This is particularly true for females. Nevertheless, even in the absence of any restrictions, immigrants are less reliant on welfare and work more than their native counterparts. The second chapter focuses on the determinants of geographical mobility of British labour market entrants over the period 1991-2008, with an emphasis on the role of education. Given the absence of an appropriate index for mobility in the data, I compute a continuous measure of distance that is then matched to the individual information. Results suggest that having a degree has a positive impact on the mobility of young adults and, hence, on their labour market opportunities. Moreover, an important role is played by previous mobility experience and some other environmental factors. In the third chapter of this dissertation I evaluate the long-term effects of undergoing job turnover during a woman’s early career on her demand for children. In doing so, I make a distinction between voluntary and involuntary job separations. The empirical analysis is made on a sample of British women who have left education in the years 1959-1986, for which I construct job experience and family formation variables on the basis of retrospective information. The findings imply that women with stronger preferences for children might self-select into more rewarding career paths, possibly in pursuance of better labour market conditions that can guarantee a more adequate child rearing.

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This thesis examines the nature and role of resilience in forced migrants’ lives with particular reference to the day-to-day lives of Somali women living in the UK. In contrast to the dominant discourse of victimhood associated with the label of ‘forced migrant’ this empirical study explores the notion of the ‘strong migrant woman’. Drawing upon perspectives that illuminate power relations and adopting a social constructionist framework, a qualitative and predominantly ethnographic approach was taken to elicit Somali women’s accounts of their family life in a city in southern England. Challenges encountered within the research field, including language barriers, issues of informed consent and women’s reluctance to engage with the study, led to the adoption of an increasingly informal, flexible process of data generation. This was via formal and informal individual and group interviews and participant observation of women’s daily activities. Together these rich sources of data illuminate the complexity and contraction of the resilience concept and in doing so promote a more informed understanding of the diversity and richness of forced migrants’ lives. Findings from this study challenge the use of static frameworks and labels in determining and categorising migratory journeys and experiences of (re)settlement. The need for recognition of the complexity and fluidity surrounding the nature of border crossings is argued. Drawing on a pluralistic theoretical approach to understanding resilience, this thesis illuminates the complex ways in which risk and protection, strengths and vulnerability operate within women’s day-to-day lives. ‘Complexity and contradiction’ and ‘movement and fluidity’ are identified as key inter-related themes in understanding the nature of resilience within these migrant women’s family life. A model developed on the basis of this study’s findings and encompassing a more holistic approach is outlined as a potential tool to aid the complex task of resilience assessment.

All nations with significant dimensions of immigration and ethnic minorities are facing policy tensions stemming from two contradicting fundamental constitutional principles. The establishment and preservation of nationhood seems to require cultural homogeneity and associated integration of the population living on a specified territory. However, the aim of integration is challenged by the principle of recognising and safeguarding cultural identities of minorities and immigrants. One of central debates concerns language policy. This country study concerns the recent relation of language policy and immigration policy in Germany. It is based on the analysis of public discourses circling around the legislative process and the subsequent application and amendment of the foreigners’ statute of 1997 and the immigration statute of 2004 including the Green card initiative (2000) and the debate about restrictive policies after the Madrid bombing (2004). It also contains a case study of the controversies on the German-only policy on the playground of a multi-ethnic school in Wedding, a district of Berlin. Recent media coverage shows that this example, picked in 2006, has since achieved a paradigmatic quality. The thesis outlines and applies aspects of critical discourse analysis for the interpretation of selected relevant texts, mainly contained in national quality newspapers. The case study is also based on interviews and use of correspondence addressed to the school.

The study was conceptualised against the background that leading migration theories explain return migration based on failure and success alone. The neo-classical economics theory of migration perceives return migration as a by-product of a failed migration experience while the new economics of labour migration perceives return as occurring after successful achievement of migration objectives. This study questions these theoretical positions through an exploration of the factors that deter South Africa-based Zimbabwean skilled migrants from returning home permanently notwithstanding a successful or failed migration experience. Furtive economic factors in Zimbabwe and South Africa that dissuade skilled migrants from returning home permanently are explored. Social factors in Zimbabwe and in South Africa that influence return migration decision making are also examined. Furthermore, the study analysed whether and how Zimbabwean skilled migrants are forced into a permanent settlement in South Africa as a result of what this study calls the ‘diaspora trap’. This ‘diaspora trap’ framework argues that Zimbabwean skilled migrants in South Africa do not return following their experiences of failure and success in South Africa. Central to the absence of return is the social construction of migrants as successful in Zimbabwe. Skilled migrants are deterred from returning due to their failure to meet family and communal expectations of success. In addition, return migration is deferred as a means to hide poverty in South Africa. Moreover, new diaspora family ties weaken attachments with Zimbabwe and contribute to deferred return migration. Skilled migrants are thus entrapped in South Africa by their failure to live up to the success social construct and the inability to mitigate adversities in the host country.

This thesis traces cultural and socio-political responses to the alien Jew in Britain through the prism of genre, space and time. Beginning with the reports of persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century, it examines how representations of these foreign Jews changed and developed as sympathy for their plight turned to anxiety at the prospect of their arrival in Britain. It shows how a Semitic discourse evolved alongside, and in response to, wider debates about the state of the self, nation and empire at the fin de siècle, arguing that the vocabulary and mentality of imperialism was a crucial tool for deciphering the nature of Jewish „difference‟. However, this thesis also enables fresh perspectives by considering the gender and spatial dynamics of Semitic representations in Britain during and beyond the period of mass immigration, from the end of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the twenty first. This extended view of the Jewish 'other', which follows the 'typical' Jewish migrant journey from the shtetl of Eastern Europe to the North London suburb of the present-day, considers how Jewish spatial and cultural practices have been interpreted and articulated by the British and the British-Jewish onlooker. The thesis' opening section, divided into three chapters, adopts an original approach to the aliens question by exploring how perspectives on the alien Jew were shaped and expressed within different mediums, or 'genres' at the fin de siècle. Through an assessment of newspapers, political debates, and fiction, this section offers a comparative analysis of how the particular dynamics and agendas of each of these genres operated to produce different textual and visual images of 'the Jew'. Building upon Bryan Cheyette's seminal work in relation to fiction, each of these chapters demonstrates not only the inherently ambivalent nature of Semitic representations but also reveal that, crucially, gender was an important moderator of Jewish „difference‟. This reading extends into the second section which, across four chapters, explores how gender functioned in conjunction with space to construct ideas in Britain about alien Jews as they traversed time and space from shtetl to suburb. Beginning with the point of departure, the opening chapter of the section reviews the long tradition of representing Eastern Europe by „the West‟, arguing that this tradition laid the foundation for a paradoxical view of the Jew in Eastern Europe as both territorialized and territorializing. This perceived struggle for spatial ownership amongst Jews also featured in narratives of the migrant journey – the topic of the second chapter. That perception generated the notion that migrating Jews were staging an alien invasion of Britain. Thus the prolonged fascination with London's Jewish 'ghetto' and its interior – 'alien' territory par excellence – provides the focus for the third chapter which, in turn, lays the foundation for the final chapter‟s exploration of the replacement of the urban with the suburban as the alien Jew's 'territory' of choice.