Religion and migration in Iraq : investigating the reasons for return of internally displaced Christians to Baghdeda

dc.contributor.authorMonzer, Nora
dc.contributor.authorÖhlmann, Philipp
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-07T11:21:06Z
dc.date.available2024-08-07T11:21:06Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionAn earlier version of this article was made available as discussion paper, ‘The reasons for return of internally displaced Christians to Baghdeda’. (Discussion Paper 04/2022 of the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sus-tainable Development. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.)en_US
dc.description.abstractThe emergence of the terrorist group, Daesh in 2014 and the international military campaign against it caused both a humanitarian crisis and mass dis-placement in Iraq. About 5.8 million people became internally displaced, and as of 2021, 1.2 million of them still remain in displacement. This article en-gages with the question of what motivates people to return from displacement to their area of origin. It investigates the role that religion played in the deci-sion of internally displaced Christians to return to Baghdeda in the Ninewa Plain, Iraq’s largest Christian town. Based on qualitative interviews, the arti-cle examines the factors influencing people’s decisions to return. We find that religion contributes to an array of pull factors positively influencing the deci-sion to return, within the nexus of other considerations such as security, re-construction, and economic opportunities. Religion was found to contribute to the return decision through the respondents’ Christian identity, the encour-agement to return by religious leaders, and the reconstruction efforts led by the churches. However, while these factors contributed to motivating people to return, these alone are not sufficient to motivate Christians to stay in Baghdeda in the long-term if other important conditions like the security situ-ation and economic opportunities are not in place.en_US
dc.description.departmentPractical Theologyen_US
dc.description.librarianam2024en_US
dc.description.sdgNoneen_US
dc.description.urihttps://www.jstor.org/journal/jstudyreligionen_US
dc.identifier.citationMonzer, N. & Ohlmann, P. 2023, 'Religion and migration in Iraq : investigating the reasons for return of internally displaced Christians to Baghdeda', Journal for the Study of Religion, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 1-32. http://dx.DOI.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2023/v36n2a2.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1011-7601 (print)
dc.identifier.issn413-3027 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.17159/2413-3027/2023/v36n2a2
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/97491
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUnisa Pressen_US
dc.rights© 2023 Unisa Press.en_US
dc.subjectIraqen_US
dc.subjectInternally displaced peopleen_US
dc.subjectChristiansen_US
dc.subjectHumanitarian aiden_US
dc.subjectEthno-religious identityen_US
dc.subjectConflicten_US
dc.subjectNinewa plainen_US
dc.titleReligion and migration in Iraq : investigating the reasons for return of internally displaced Christians to Baghdedaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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