Theorizing Transience: Temporary Migrations in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific

Much of contemporary international migration occurs under conditions of temporariness. But migration theory has yet to fully make sense of migrants’ varied experiences of temporariness. Instead, transience is either equated with precarity or celebrated as a completely free existence. This international workshop brings together scholars whose research investigates various manifestations of transience in international migration, across different migrant categories, and spanning both the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific. The goal is to center intersectional migrant experiences and migration policies in non-Western contexts, in order to build a more comprehensive migration theory. Convened by

• Laure Assaf, Assistant Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies and Anthropology,, NYUAD
• Brenda Yeoh, Professor of Social Sciences, National University of Singapore
• Anju Mary Paul, Professor of Social Research and Public Policy, NYUAD