List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration of Arabic Terms

Introduction: ‘Now, we are Here:’ Anchoring in the Meantime

Chapter 1. Home and Nation in the Palestinian Kitchen
Chapter 2. Family Business and the Business of Family
Chapter 3. Encountering British Bureaucracy
Chapter 4. ‘Discombobulated’ Subjectivities
Chapter 5. On the World Stage: Performing Palestine in London

Conclusion: ‘For Now, we are Still Here’

Glossary
References
Index

Migration as Anchorage

Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London

Michelle Obeid

198 pages, 3 ills., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-83695-142-1 Hb Published (December 2025)

Details

“This is a moving and beautifully written account of the making of home in the face of uncertainty, adversity, and persecution.” • Ramy Aly, The American University in Cairo

On a temporary visit to London, a Palestinian family found themselves unable to return to Gaza during Israel’s 2008 war on their city. Understanding their stay in London as an act of ‘anchoring’, the family opened a Palestinian café and sought to make their lives – as individuals, as a family and as a community – viable in the face of uncertainty. By following the stories of various family members as they struggled to recreate a sense of home, this moving ethnography introduces the concept of anchorage as a novel lens to understand migration, home and place, highlighting the fluidity, temporariness and serendipity of these experiences.

Michelle Obeid is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She is also the author of Border Lives: An Ethnography of a Lebanese Town in Changing Times (Brill, 2019).

Subject: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General) Peace and Conflict Studies

Area: Middle East & Israel Europe

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC066000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Refugees; SOC007000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Emigration & Immigration

available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) with support from University of Manchester.

berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

Migration as Anchorage

Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London

Michelle Obeid

Subject: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General) Peace and Conflict Studies

Area: Middle East & Israel Europe

This title is published as Open Access

Full Text PDF | Full Text ePUB Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license with support from University of Manchester.

Home -> Title

Contents

Migration as Anchorage

Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London

Michelle Obeid

Subject: Refugee and Migration Studies Anthropology (General) Peace and Conflict Studies

Area: Middle East & Israel Europe

This title is published as Open Access

Full Text PDF | Full Text ePUB Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license with support from University of Manchester.