Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into... more Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into various geographical directions. Although the faith suffered a decline under Arab Muslim rule already in the eleventh century, the region nonetheless remained an important spiritual centre of Christianity until about the thirteenth century. Today, however, local Christians express fear about the end of their existence in this region, their ancestral home. This fear is also shared by scholars and experts who ask whether Christianity has a future in the Middle East (Jenkins 2004, Tamcke 2016). In the collective memory of Assyrians 1 , their traumatic past-transmitted through generations-continues to play a central role in their life (Atto 2017). One could say that each generation has experienced a form of continued dispossession, accumulated in the inherited memory of individuals. For example, together with Armenians and Greeks, Assyrians worldwide began 2014 with preparations for the commemoration of the centennial of the 1915 genocide of the Christians in Ottoman Turkey. Yet in 2014 they were confronted with yet another genocide; another systematic and intentional attempt to destroy their people, this time occurring in the present. Today, Christian communities in the Middle East are targeted by the Islamic State (IS) and other radical militant Islamist groups. Areas occupied by IS in Syria and 1 Assyrians is used here as a cross-denominational name for the various oriental churches in the Syriac tradition; it can be used synonymous with Syriacs and Arameans.
environment, especially during the period of asylum application. Factors hampering a sense of bel... more environment, especially during the period of asylum application. Factors hampering a sense of belonging and integration in society are the cumbersome legal processes in the acquisition of citizenship, long waiting times for asylum decisions, feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty, asymmetric relations with authorities and a high level of dependency associated with experienced financial difficulties, inability to work and discrimination, and at a contextual level the 'hostile' host environment.
This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigran... more This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigrant integration by bringing the focus on a specific case, the trauma recovery of Yazidis with an explicit emphasis on their psychosocial needs. To this respect, it draws data and findings from international guidelines in approaching trauma recovery from a holistic perspective and includes also the importance of cultural identity as a contextual factor for understanding trauma recovery dynamics in the context of forced displacement and settlement in a new country. In addition to surveying the existing literature around psychosocial needs of refugees and Yazidis in particular, this report benefits from insights gained during interviews with representatives of Yazidi-run non-profit organisations involved in psychosocial support and advocacy programmes. Many of the lessons learned from the research in this report are also applicable to other refugee populations as they point to general structu...
This report explores the legal and policy framework of migration governance in the United Kingdom... more This report explores the legal and policy framework of migration governance in the United Kingdom (UK). It shows that migration governance is complicated, reactive, and that the needs of immigrants ...
This article discusses the ways in which eyewitness accounts about the Assyrian Genocide have bee... more This article discusses the ways in which eyewitness accounts about the Assyrian Genocide have been transmitted in writing and orally, reconstructed across generations, and how these accounts have been expressed in lamentations, poetry, and songs in the diaspora, after large numbers of Assyrians settled in Western states beginning in the 1960s. The study of poetry and songs is not only important for reasons of literary analysis, but more so because of the relatively few written primary sources about the Assyrian Genocide. The production of poetry and songs has partly been instrumental in avoiding censorship and renewed persecution, but in recent years has additional value as a medium to call for future action in preventing violence and transmiting memories of the past. The article also highlights culturally specific forms of coping with trauma and transmitting memory. It is based on the analysis of Sayfo lamentations and poetry produced in the homeland, 21 Sayfo songs and poems produ...
This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with rega... more This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with regard to immigrant integration that have been studied in nine country cases, based on research conducte ...
This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the... more This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the UK and explains the main contours of immigrant integration. The report looks into policies (macro-l ...
Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Chr... more Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Christians were probably least likely to form a national or ethnic community. Yet a group emerged with its own distinctive literature and art, its own network, and historical consciousness. In an intricate process of adoption and rejection, the West Syrians selected elements from the cultures to which they were heirs, and from those with which they came into contact, thus defining a position of their own. In order to study this phenomenon, scholars from various disciplines, and affiliated to two different faculties, were brought together in a programme financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO. This essay introduces their research project and methodology, and presents their results and conclusions.
This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with rega... more This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with regard to immigrant integration that have been studied in nine country cases, based on research conducte ...
Naures Atto identifies in this historical anthropological analysis the present-day identity disco... more Naures Atto identifies in this historical anthropological analysis the present-day identity discourses among Assyrian/Syriac elites in the European diaspora. The most heated discussion during the last four decades among Assyrians/Syriacs has been what the ‘correct name’ of their people should be in Western languages. Hostages in the Homeland, Orphans in the Diaspora aims to develop a deeper understanding of this ‘name debate’. The emigration of Assyrians/Syriacs from the Middle East and their settlement in Western countries dislocated their former identity discourses, which have since then entered into a transformation process and have been subsequently re-defined in relation to the new context. In this context, the ‘name’ of their people has become the core element in their new identity discourses, displacing previous nodal points such as religion and language. The redefined identity discourses have also been explained as attempts to find a remedy for the Hostages’ and Orphans’ Dil...
This report is part of the fifth Work Package of RESPOND and deals with issues related to refugee... more This report is part of the fifth Work Package of RESPOND and deals with issues related to refugee integration, aiming to present and discuss legislative measures and policies, the integration practices followed by state and non-state actors and the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees with regards to integration in Greece in the period 2011-2019. The report draws from the EU principles and key policy priorities on integration as they are shaped through a) the “Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU” which were adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council in November 2004 and b) the 2016 “Action Plan on the Integration of Third-country Nationals” that sets out policy priorities and the tools to support their implementation. The Migration and Social Integration Code (Law 4251/2014) is currently the basic law regulating integration in Greece, and it has addressed issues pertaining to residence permits and access to the labour market. Furthermore, two national strategies for the integration of third-country nationals were launched in 2013 and 2018 respectively. The research methodology used for this report has combined diverse methods. The review of the national legislation on integration issues was accompanied by a review of a series of reports by national and international organisations and NGOs. The practices of integration are analysed on the basis of the empirical material assembled during qualitative field research conducted mainly in Lesvos (and to a lesser extent in Athens) in the period June-December 2018 at a meso and micro level.
Edited book with 12 chapters plus introduction. Interdisciplinary with articles by historians, li... more Edited book with 12 chapters plus introduction. Interdisciplinary with articles by historians, linguists, psychologists, religious scholars and political scientists. Articles deal with the genocide ...
Bakground to violence targetting various Christian groups in Eastern Anatolia during World War I.... more Bakground to violence targetting various Christian groups in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Gives an overview of research and known facts about the political, social and economic factors behi ...
Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into... more Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into various geographical directions. Although the faith suffered a decline under Arab Muslim rule already in the eleventh century, the region nonetheless remained an important spiritual centre of Christianity until about the thirteenth century. Today, however, local Christians express fear about the end of their existence in this region, their ancestral home. This fear is also shared by scholars and experts who ask whether Christianity has a future in the Middle East (Jenkins 2004, Tamcke 2016). In the collective memory of Assyrians 1 , their traumatic past-transmitted through generations-continues to play a central role in their life (Atto 2017). One could say that each generation has experienced a form of continued dispossession, accumulated in the inherited memory of individuals. For example, together with Armenians and Greeks, Assyrians worldwide began 2014 with preparations for the commemoration of the centennial of the 1915 genocide of the Christians in Ottoman Turkey. Yet in 2014 they were confronted with yet another genocide; another systematic and intentional attempt to destroy their people, this time occurring in the present. Today, Christian communities in the Middle East are targeted by the Islamic State (IS) and other radical militant Islamist groups. Areas occupied by IS in Syria and 1 Assyrians is used here as a cross-denominational name for the various oriental churches in the Syriac tradition; it can be used synonymous with Syriacs and Arameans.
Global Migration: Consequences and Responses , 2021
This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigran... more This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigrant integration by bringing the focus on a specific case, the trauma recovery of Yazidis with an explicit emphasis on their psychosocial needs. To this respect, it draws data and findings from international guidelines in approaching trauma recovery from a holistic perspective and includes also the importance of cultural identity as a contextual factor for understanding trauma recovery dynamics in the context of forced displacement and settlement in a new country. In addition to surveying the existing literature around psychosocial needs of refugees and Yazidis in particular, this report benefits from insights gained during interviews with representatives of Yazidi-run non-profit organisations involved in psychosocial support and advocacy programmes. Many of the lessons learned from the research in this report are also applicable to other refugee populations as they point to general structural shortcomings of national and international support systems, as well as to efforts targeted at addressing these shortcomings.
Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into... more Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into various geographical directions. Although the faith suffered a decline under Arab Muslim rule already in the eleventh century, the region nonetheless remained an important spiritual centre of Christianity until about the thirteenth century. Today, however, local Christians express fear about the end of their existence in this region, their ancestral home. This fear is also shared by scholars and experts who ask whether Christianity has a future in the Middle East (Jenkins 2004, Tamcke 2016). In the collective memory of Assyrians 1 , their traumatic past-transmitted through generations-continues to play a central role in their life (Atto 2017). One could say that each generation has experienced a form of continued dispossession, accumulated in the inherited memory of individuals. For example, together with Armenians and Greeks, Assyrians worldwide began 2014 with preparations for the commemoration of the centennial of the 1915 genocide of the Christians in Ottoman Turkey. Yet in 2014 they were confronted with yet another genocide; another systematic and intentional attempt to destroy their people, this time occurring in the present. Today, Christian communities in the Middle East are targeted by the Islamic State (IS) and other radical militant Islamist groups. Areas occupied by IS in Syria and 1 Assyrians is used here as a cross-denominational name for the various oriental churches in the Syriac tradition; it can be used synonymous with Syriacs and Arameans.
environment, especially during the period of asylum application. Factors hampering a sense of bel... more environment, especially during the period of asylum application. Factors hampering a sense of belonging and integration in society are the cumbersome legal processes in the acquisition of citizenship, long waiting times for asylum decisions, feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty, asymmetric relations with authorities and a high level of dependency associated with experienced financial difficulties, inability to work and discrimination, and at a contextual level the 'hostile' host environment.
This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigran... more This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigrant integration by bringing the focus on a specific case, the trauma recovery of Yazidis with an explicit emphasis on their psychosocial needs. To this respect, it draws data and findings from international guidelines in approaching trauma recovery from a holistic perspective and includes also the importance of cultural identity as a contextual factor for understanding trauma recovery dynamics in the context of forced displacement and settlement in a new country. In addition to surveying the existing literature around psychosocial needs of refugees and Yazidis in particular, this report benefits from insights gained during interviews with representatives of Yazidi-run non-profit organisations involved in psychosocial support and advocacy programmes. Many of the lessons learned from the research in this report are also applicable to other refugee populations as they point to general structu...
This report explores the legal and policy framework of migration governance in the United Kingdom... more This report explores the legal and policy framework of migration governance in the United Kingdom (UK). It shows that migration governance is complicated, reactive, and that the needs of immigrants ...
This article discusses the ways in which eyewitness accounts about the Assyrian Genocide have bee... more This article discusses the ways in which eyewitness accounts about the Assyrian Genocide have been transmitted in writing and orally, reconstructed across generations, and how these accounts have been expressed in lamentations, poetry, and songs in the diaspora, after large numbers of Assyrians settled in Western states beginning in the 1960s. The study of poetry and songs is not only important for reasons of literary analysis, but more so because of the relatively few written primary sources about the Assyrian Genocide. The production of poetry and songs has partly been instrumental in avoiding censorship and renewed persecution, but in recent years has additional value as a medium to call for future action in preventing violence and transmiting memories of the past. The article also highlights culturally specific forms of coping with trauma and transmitting memory. It is based on the analysis of Sayfo lamentations and poetry produced in the homeland, 21 Sayfo songs and poems produ...
This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with rega... more This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with regard to immigrant integration that have been studied in nine country cases, based on research conducte ...
This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the... more This report provides an overview of the legal and policy framework of integration policies in the UK and explains the main contours of immigrant integration. The report looks into policies (macro-l ...
Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Chr... more Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Christians were probably least likely to form a national or ethnic community. Yet a group emerged with its own distinctive literature and art, its own network, and historical consciousness. In an intricate process of adoption and rejection, the West Syrians selected elements from the cultures to which they were heirs, and from those with which they came into contact, thus defining a position of their own. In order to study this phenomenon, scholars from various disciplines, and affiliated to two different faculties, were brought together in a programme financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO. This essay introduces their research project and methodology, and presents their results and conclusions.
This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with rega... more This report provides a snapshot for some of the primary findings, trends and challenges with regard to immigrant integration that have been studied in nine country cases, based on research conducte ...
Naures Atto identifies in this historical anthropological analysis the present-day identity disco... more Naures Atto identifies in this historical anthropological analysis the present-day identity discourses among Assyrian/Syriac elites in the European diaspora. The most heated discussion during the last four decades among Assyrians/Syriacs has been what the ‘correct name’ of their people should be in Western languages. Hostages in the Homeland, Orphans in the Diaspora aims to develop a deeper understanding of this ‘name debate’. The emigration of Assyrians/Syriacs from the Middle East and their settlement in Western countries dislocated their former identity discourses, which have since then entered into a transformation process and have been subsequently re-defined in relation to the new context. In this context, the ‘name’ of their people has become the core element in their new identity discourses, displacing previous nodal points such as religion and language. The redefined identity discourses have also been explained as attempts to find a remedy for the Hostages’ and Orphans’ Dil...
This report is part of the fifth Work Package of RESPOND and deals with issues related to refugee... more This report is part of the fifth Work Package of RESPOND and deals with issues related to refugee integration, aiming to present and discuss legislative measures and policies, the integration practices followed by state and non-state actors and the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees with regards to integration in Greece in the period 2011-2019. The report draws from the EU principles and key policy priorities on integration as they are shaped through a) the “Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU” which were adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council in November 2004 and b) the 2016 “Action Plan on the Integration of Third-country Nationals” that sets out policy priorities and the tools to support their implementation. The Migration and Social Integration Code (Law 4251/2014) is currently the basic law regulating integration in Greece, and it has addressed issues pertaining to residence permits and access to the labour market. Furthermore, two national strategies for the integration of third-country nationals were launched in 2013 and 2018 respectively. The research methodology used for this report has combined diverse methods. The review of the national legislation on integration issues was accompanied by a review of a series of reports by national and international organisations and NGOs. The practices of integration are analysed on the basis of the empirical material assembled during qualitative field research conducted mainly in Lesvos (and to a lesser extent in Athens) in the period June-December 2018 at a meso and micro level.
Edited book with 12 chapters plus introduction. Interdisciplinary with articles by historians, li... more Edited book with 12 chapters plus introduction. Interdisciplinary with articles by historians, linguists, psychologists, religious scholars and political scientists. Articles deal with the genocide ...
Bakground to violence targetting various Christian groups in Eastern Anatolia during World War I.... more Bakground to violence targetting various Christian groups in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Gives an overview of research and known facts about the political, social and economic factors behi ...
Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into... more Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into various geographical directions. Although the faith suffered a decline under Arab Muslim rule already in the eleventh century, the region nonetheless remained an important spiritual centre of Christianity until about the thirteenth century. Today, however, local Christians express fear about the end of their existence in this region, their ancestral home. This fear is also shared by scholars and experts who ask whether Christianity has a future in the Middle East (Jenkins 2004, Tamcke 2016). In the collective memory of Assyrians 1 , their traumatic past-transmitted through generations-continues to play a central role in their life (Atto 2017). One could say that each generation has experienced a form of continued dispossession, accumulated in the inherited memory of individuals. For example, together with Armenians and Greeks, Assyrians worldwide began 2014 with preparations for the commemoration of the centennial of the 1915 genocide of the Christians in Ottoman Turkey. Yet in 2014 they were confronted with yet another genocide; another systematic and intentional attempt to destroy their people, this time occurring in the present. Today, Christian communities in the Middle East are targeted by the Islamic State (IS) and other radical militant Islamist groups. Areas occupied by IS in Syria and 1 Assyrians is used here as a cross-denominational name for the various oriental churches in the Syriac tradition; it can be used synonymous with Syriacs and Arameans.
Global Migration: Consequences and Responses , 2021
This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigran... more This report complements the RESPOND research (www.respondmigration.com) on migration and immigrant integration by bringing the focus on a specific case, the trauma recovery of Yazidis with an explicit emphasis on their psychosocial needs. To this respect, it draws data and findings from international guidelines in approaching trauma recovery from a holistic perspective and includes also the importance of cultural identity as a contextual factor for understanding trauma recovery dynamics in the context of forced displacement and settlement in a new country. In addition to surveying the existing literature around psychosocial needs of refugees and Yazidis in particular, this report benefits from insights gained during interviews with representatives of Yazidi-run non-profit organisations involved in psychosocial support and advocacy programmes. Many of the lessons learned from the research in this report are also applicable to other refugee populations as they point to general structural shortcomings of national and international support systems, as well as to efforts targeted at addressing these shortcomings.
The mass killing of Ottoman Armenians is today widely recognized, both within and outside scholar... more The mass killing of Ottoman Armenians is today widely recognized, both within and outside scholarly circles, as an act of genocide. What is less well known, however, is that it took place within a broader context of Ottoman violence against minority groups during and after the First World War. Among those populations decimated were the indigenous Christian Assyrians (also known as Syriacs or Chaldeans) who lived in the borderlands of present-day Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. This volume is the first scholarly edited collection focused on the Assyrian genocide, or “Sayfo” (literally, “sword” in Aramaic), presenting historical, psychological, anthropological, and political perspectives that shed much-needed light on a neglected historical atrocity.
Church History and Religious Culture 89.1-3 = Bas ter Haar Romeny (ed.), Religious Origins of Nations? The Christian Communities of the Middle East (Leiden: Brill, 2009)
Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Chr... more Among those who opposed the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the West Syrian (or Syriac Orthodox) Christians were probably least likely to form a national or ethnic community. Yet a group emerged with its own distinctive literature and art, its own network, and historical consciousness. In an intricate process of adoption and rejection, the West Syrians selected elements from the cultures to which they were heirs, and from those with which they came into contact, thus defining a position of their own. In order to study this phenomenon, scholars from various disciplines, and affiliated to two different faculties, were brought together in a programme financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This essay introduces their research project and methodology, and presents their results and conclusions.
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