“In the army I’m no longer typecast as the son of migrant workers”: modalities of inclusion and belonging among children of migrant workers in the military in Israel

This article explores how non-citizen minorities experience military service, focusing on children of international labor migrants who served in the Israel Defense Forces. During the 1990’s, Israel witnessed an influx of migrant workers, primarily from the Philippines, Latin America and Africa. However, due to Israeli immigration policies, neither they nor their Israeli-born children were eligible for citizenship. Consequently, upon reaching the age of 18, unlike their Israeli peers, these children were not recruited into the army. Furthermore, they lived under constant threat of deportation. Due to advocacy by civil society organizations, in 2006 and 2010 the government granted civic status (permanent residency) to approximately 1,500 children. This made them eligible for military service, a somewhat unique situation globally. Upon completion of their first year of military service, they were eligible for Israeli citizenship and their immediate family members were eligible for permanent residency. Through qualitative and quantitative research, we examine inclusion and belonging amongst children of migrant workers who served in the military. Our findings suggest that military service enabled them to overcome the exclusionary boundaries they experienced as children in three ways. Firstly, they achieved formal belonging by receiving citizenship. Secondly, they achieved informal belonging through the cultural and social capital this service accrued within Israeli society. Finally, for some, military service deepened their knowledge of Judaism and, in certain cases, led to conversion, thus fostering religious belonging. These three aspects facilitated inclusion and a sense of belonging for these formerly marginalized children while also enhancing their legitimacy within Israeli society. This unique case study contributes to ongoing global debates about the experiences of minority groups in the military

Israel and the ‘Holy Land’: The Religio-Political Discourse of Rights among African Migrant Labourers and African Asylum Seekers, 1990-2008

AbstractThe religious arena created in Israel by sub-Saharan African migrants from 1990-2008 was an expanded and flexible one which touched on complex questions related not only to what some may term “purely” religious themes but, among other issues, to identity and rights. The present paper compares two waves of migration,&lt;xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN1"&gt;1&lt;/xref&gt; the first arriving in Israel by air as tourists or pilgrims throughout the 1990s, mainly from West Africa, part of a larger worldwide expansion of African international labour migration; and the second, which started in 2005, of predominantly Sudanese and Eritreans, who entered the country illegally in search of asylum or work opportunities across its lax border with Egypt. While the former cohort deployed a religious rhetoric of attachment to the Holy Land, the latter invoked international human rights to claim their rights as refugees in addition to religious rhetoric. The paper considers the context and grounds for this shift in political tactics and rhetoric of migrant discursive stance vis-à-vis the state. </jats:sec

The Mau Mau Myth : Kenyan Political Discourse in Search of Democracy.

Abstract Forty years after the British colonial authorities in Kenya declared a state of emergency to crush the Mau Mau, conclusive answers to what was the Mau Mau are still intriguing. Since 1961 there has been an ongoing dispute over the interpretation of the Mau Mau myth, especially in relation to its relevance to the socio-political presence. The government, whether Kenyatta's or Moi's, has had the power at its disposal to determine which themes in the official discourse should be stressed, and in what light should the Mau Mau be perceived. In so doing, it determined the ways in which Kenyan history and specifically the collective memory of the Mau Mau was reconstructed. Various elements within the Kenyan society have clashed over conflicting interpretations of the Mau Mau, thus indicating that the whole issue of the Mau Mau was part of an ongoing political debate over the questions of ideology and power in Kenya. This debate was broadened to such an extent that some of the contestants were unwilling to accept the Mau Mau and tried to lock the memory of it back in the "historical closet".Résumé Le mythe mau mau : le discours politique kenyan à la recherche de la démocratie. — Quarante ans après que les autorités britanniques du Kenya aient proclamé l'état d'urgence pour écraser les Mau Mau, les réponses concluantes sur la nature de ce qu'avait été ce mouvement restent à venir. Depuis 1961, des débats incessants ont lieu à propos de l'interprétation du mythe mau mau, et plus particulièrement quant la pertinence de ce mythe dans le domaine socio-politique. Le gouvernement, qu'il s'agisse de celui de Kenyatta ou de Moi, disposait du pouvoir de décider quels thèmes mau mau devaient figurer dans le discours politique officiel et la manière dont ils devaient être présentés. Il a donc défini comment l'histoire kenyane et, plus particulièrement, la mémoire collective du mouvement mau mau ont été reconstruites. Différentes composantes de la société kenyane sont entrées en conflit à cause d'analyses contradictoires de ce mouvement, manifestant ainsi que la question mau mau était indissociable d'un débat permanent portant sur l'idéologie et le pouvoir au Kenya. Ce débat prit une tournure tellement importante que certains adversaires rejetèrent le mouvement mau mau et tentèrent de le chasser de la mémoire en l'enfermant dans les cachots de l'histoire.Sabar-Friedman Galia. The Mau Mau Myth : Kenyan Political Discourse in Search of Democracy.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 35, n°137, 1995. La démocratie déclinée. pp. 101-131