Transit Migration
Transit Migration

An Unnoticed Area in Ethnomusicology

Summary/Abstract: As a result of the expanding human mobilization in the today’sworld due to wars, workforce markets, etc., the scope of migration anddiaspora studies has increased in many areas. This is also true for musicalstudies, where a growing body of literature has been produced about theseissues. However, by focusing mainly on settled communities and their musicalproductions, such as hybrid genres and forms created in the destinationland, this literature does not adequately cover “transit migration”. Transitmigration, being a particular type of human mobility, refers to the migrationthat includes at least three or more steps. This means that transit migrantsdo not permanently inhabit the land they firstly enter as migrants, but aresupposed to stay in this transit country for a while and then continue theirjourney in order to reach a final destination point.In this article, I deal with this specific type of migration based on myintense field study on the Chaldean-Iraqi migrant community in Istanbul.The Chaldean community in Iraq, as a religious minority, is one of the mostaffected groups in the ongoing situation in Iraq, especially after the US invasionin 2003. Turkey functions as a transit country on their way to their prospectivedestination points, mainly including the US, Canada, and Australia.While dealing with the role of music during the indefinite time period thatthe participants are in the process of being temporary inhabitants in a foreignland, the applicability of the theoretical concepts of permanent migration totemporary migration is also discussed.

• Details
• Contents