How does labor migration facilitate authoritarianism? Dr. Tsourapas examines how migration and political power are inextricably linked, identifying the ways through which authoritarian regimes rely on the export of human capital across the Middle East and the Global South. In Egypt, the ruling elite has long shaped labour emigration policy in accordance with internal and external tactics aimed at regime survival.
Book Talk: Authoritarianism and Migration in Modern Egypt w/ Gerasimos Tsourapas
Gerasimos Tsourapas, Associate Professor of Middle East Politics at the University of Birmingham, Visiting Fellow with the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (2019-20)
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Dr. Tsourapas draws on a wealth of previously-unavailable archival sources in Arabic and English, as well as extensive original interviews with Egyptian elites and policy-makers in order to produce a novel account of authoritarian politics in the Arab world. He offers offers new insights into the evolution and political rationale behind regime strategies towards migration, from Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 Revolution to the 2011 Arab Uprisings.
Dr. Gerasimos Tsourapas is an Associate Professor of Middle East Politics, University of Birmingham and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University (2019-20). His research focuses on the politics of migrants, refugees, and diasporas in the Middle East. He has published in leading academic journals, including International Studies Quarterly, International Political Science Review, Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, International Studies Perspectives, and others.
Discussant:
Zachary Lockman
Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and History. The main focus of his research and teaching has been the socioeconomic, cultural and political history of the modern Middle East, particularly the Mashriq. Since his doctoral dissertation on the emergence and evolution of a working class and labor movement in Egypt from the late nineteenth century until WWII, he has continued to work on Egypt with a special interest in society, culture and politics in the 1882-1919 period.