Lori Explores Relationship Between UAE Immigrant Groups
Noora Lori, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an article in the International Migration Review (IMR) on immigration in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and how citizenship policies shape immigrants’ perception of each other.
The article, titled “Possible Citizens: Migration Enforcement as the Performance of Citizenship in the United Arab Emirates,” aims to explain why immigrants develop anti-immigrant attitudes. Lori argues that under uncertain citizenship status, long-term immigrants are unlikely to develop solidarity with newcomers, despite common experience with exclusionary citizenship policies. Drawing on interviews with naturalization applicants in the United Arab Emirates, this article analyses how policies that unevenly distribute rights and protections to non-citizens structure relationships between immigrant groups.
The full article can be read on IMR’s website.
Noora Lori’s research broadly focuses on the political economy of migration, the development of security institutions and international migration control, and the establishment and growth of national identity systems. She is particularly interested in the study of temporary worker programs and racial hierarchies in comparative perspective. Regionally, her work examines the shifting population movements accompanying state formation in the Persian Gulf, expanding the study of Middle East politics to include historic and new connections with East Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Lori is the Founding Director of the Pardee School Initiative on Forced Migration and Human Trafficking. Read more about Professor Lori on her faculty profile.