Migrants in Anchorage: an Ethnography of Palestinians in London

In the context of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and Brexit, migration has become a volatile political matter in the UK, consolidating stereotypes about ethnic groups and exaggerating the figure of the migrant as a resistor to ‘integration.’ As the first anthropological study of Palestinians in the UK, Migrants in Anchorage explores the experiences of a displaced Palestinian Muslim family in creating a new home in London. In an ethnographic monograph, I provide an account of different trajectories of settling by documenting what I term processes of anchorage, the everyday practices that create a sense of holding fast in otherwise fluid times and places. By examining how these migrants established a distinctly Palestinian café, embedded themselves in their neighbourhoods, engaged in multicultural activities and negotiated their legal entitlements with state officials, the project explores how migrants anchor themselves in new social worlds and the part they play in shaping those worlds.

Funded by BA/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship