words:1350 (just need to write part 2,the student have writtern part1,please check the"research proposal)deadline: 12 th Jan
Researching refugees
"Are Jews Who Fled Arab Lands to Israel Refugees, Too?”
Media History, October 2013
The representation of Jewish migration from Arab lands, 1950-58, in Anglo-American newspapers.
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Researching refugees
Research (from idea to execution)
Execution (doing the research, and the compromises)
Publication (a different struggle)
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Getting ideas
Idea
from somewhere, e.g. interest, curiosity, gap in the literature
Or, curiosity leads to a focus on a topic
Drives the research, takes you down several and different routes
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Refugees (the numbers)
Many millions of people have been forced or chosen to leave their homes in national political, and religious persecutions in this century. Though all are, in a sense, refugees, they normally retain the name only so long as they do not enjoy the protection of their own country and have not received citizenship in another.
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, ARMENIAN PERSECUTION, SPANISH CIVIL WAR..
GERMAN, AUSTRIAN, AND SUDENTEN JEWS.- ln 1939 400,000 Jewish refugees were spread through many countries, but chiefly the United States (63,000), Palestine (55,000), Britain (40,000). France (30,000), Argentina, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (25,000), Holland (22,000), and Belgium (20,000).
GERMAN AND EAST EUROPEAN REFUGEES
INDEPENDENCE OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN
PALESTINE WAR. - International organizations took responsibility for 880,000 refugees after the establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab-Israel conflict in 1948. The total of Arab refugees is not known, but those in receipt of rations were: Jordan, 470,000: Gaza area, 204,000; Lebanon, 104,000: Syria. 84,000; Iraq, 5,000; and Israel. 19.000.
CHINESE CIVIL WAR, KOREAN WAR
EGYPTIAN EXPULSIONS.-It was estimated in February that 5,000 refugees had arrived in Europe from Egypt and that 13.800 more would arrive by July 15. It is hoped that about 7.000 will be resettled in Israel.
Victims Of A Half-Century Of Political Upheaval GUIDE TO WORLD'S REFUGEES The Times 11.4.57
getting ideas
Martin Gilbert, 2010
Getting ideas
‘… by only using the phrases displaced or left to become citizens of Israel when mentioning the existence of Jews from Arab lands, commentators have obfuscated the refugee status of these Jews, while characterizing the Palestinians as “refugees”.’ (Basri, 2002: 657. Emphasis supplied.)
President Obama ‘never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century.’ (Aciman, 2009)
Getting ideas
were they
refugees?
Were they described in the press as refugees (and
does it matter)?
Getting ideas to become focused
"Are Jews Who Fled Arab Lands to Israel Refugees, Too?"
NYT headline helped focus the research question
The representation of Jewish migration from Arab lands, 1950-58, in Anglo-American newspapers.
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The focus
Doing the research
(1) The representation of
(2) Jewish migration from
(3) Arab lands,
(4) 1950-58, in
(5) Anglo-American newspapers.
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From focus to methods
The methods & compromises
Method (qualitative or quantitative, case studies)
Language/ terminology
Sources of data (what is available, language)
(1) The representation of
(2) Jewish migration from
(3) Arab lands,
(4) 1950-58, in
(5) Anglo-American newspapers.
10
From focus to methods
The methods & compromises
Method (qualitative or quantitative, case studies)
Language/ terminology
Sources of data (what is available, language)
(1) The representation of
(2) Jewish migration from
(3) Arab lands,
(4) 1950-58, in
(5) Anglo-American newspapers.
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From focus to methods
The compromises
Method (qualitative or quantitative)
Language/ terminology
Sources of data (what is available, language)
(1) The representation of
(2) Jewish migration from
(3) Arab lands,
(4) 1950-58, in
(5) Anglo-American newspapers.
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From focus to methods
The compromises
Method (qualitative or quantitative)
Language/ terminology
Sources of data (what is available, language)
What to include/ exclude
(1) The representation of
(2) Jewish migration from
(3) Arab lands,
(4) 1950-58, in
(5) Anglo-American newspapers.
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Data needs context
literature review
Contextualizing political and historical controversies – it is about how different groups (Jews, Arabs/Palestinians) were represented
Understanding migration (forced, voluntary), i.e. who is a ‘refugee’?
Understanding the role of journalism in representing migration
Refugees – some data (quantitative)
| Phrase | The Times | Guardian/ Observer | New York Times |
| Arab refugees | 305 | 324 | 1204 |
| Palestinian refugees | 30 | 23 | 100 |
| Jewish refugees | 26 | 39 | 321 |
Refugees – case studies
If the Jews were not refugees or described as refugees, what were they?
Three studies: Yemen, Iraq, Egypt post-1956.
Refugees – Iraq (quantitative)
Expelled Jews never quite achieved the status of the refugee per se.
When resettling in Israel, they were ‘refugee immigrants’ (Guardian).
When The Times discussed the plight of the Jews and the changing nature of the population of Israel, it still framed the migration of Jews in terms of ‘return’ and ‘immigration’.
In 24 news items published by the Times between April 1949 December 1951, the phrase ‘Arab refugee/s’ appears 10 times, ‘Palestinian refugee/s’ 3 times but ‘Jewish refugee/s’ only once.
Refugees – Iraq (qualitative)
‘This is the beginning of what may develop into the biggest civilian airlift in history. … If all is satisfactory it will be followed this month by 30 flights, each carrying 80 emigrants. … 90 are planned for each following month until all the emigrants have been carried. It is estimated that as many as 45,000 may leave eventually.’ (The Times, May 1950)
"Are Jews Who Fled Arab Lands to Israel Refugees, Too?”
Discussion
Why were the Jews not readily referred to as refugees (given that they could not go back)?
How should journalism represent migration?
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From idea to publication
Publishing (more compromises)
What comes out differs from research
Meeting the needs/ demands of journals
Amending, editing, changing the text to satisfy different publishers
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Doing research
Always have a single focus/ clear single question
This determines what you do next
It also incorporates the compromises that you may have to make
Analyse the data with the question in mind
Answer your question
Refugees - Iraq
‘So much publicity has attended that sad departure of the rest of their community, that the world will judge by their fate whether in future Jews can really live in an Arab country or – conversely – Arabs in a Jewish State.’ (MG Jews 1951 April)
Refugees - Iraq
The Guardian’s ‘obituary’ for ‘Iraqi Jewry’ (April, 1951) :
‘One can see now in retrospect the slow but sure process whereby a minority was made to feel unwelcome … The “numerus clausus” in schools and colleges, the gradual elimination of all Jews … from government employment, … the molestations, murders, and bomb-throwings which went unpunished, the discrimination against Jews…, the pogrom (the Farhud) of 1941…. The record is curiously like the dreary and familiar history of European anti-Semitism.’
Refugees - Iraq
About 150,000 Jews left Iraq in period.
Why did they leave?
Period before departure and period after departure.