Egyptian Diaspora, Power, and Resistance. An ethnographic study of the Egyptian diaspora in Berlin and Paris, summer 2019.

Abstract

The Egyptian revolution in 2011 ended dramatically in 2013 with the military taking control of the country in a coup. The current repressive government has forced many activists, journalists, professors, and other citizens to leave the country permanently, in fear of imprisonment and other penalties and harassment. Others left because of the deteriorating economic situation in the country. New Egyptian communities began forming on the margins of many capitals, such as Berlin and Paris. Through participant observation, I conducted my fieldwork between Berlin and Paris. I was trying to understand how members of the Egyptian diaspora community make sense of their everyday lives. I argue that the Egyptian state has used passports and citizenship in order to dismantle the political movement following 2011. Diaspora Egyptians, however, are resisting the overwhelming power of the state by performing their own version of national identity in their everyday lives.