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Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas

Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas
Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas

Diasporas play a critical role in home-country politics by supporting social, political, and economic change therein. Yet, regimes countermobilize against activists abroad by repressing their diasporas. This paper investigates a widespread but overlooked method in the transnational repression toolkit: that of ‘proxy punishment’, that is, the abuse of family members at home as a means to manipulate and subjugate dissidents abroad. Using 246 original interviews with diaspora activists from Syria, Iran, Egypt, and Libya, the analysis demonstrates that regimes deployed five tactics against diaspora members’ non-activist families at home: harm and confinement, threats and harassment, forced participation in regime propaganda and slander, resource deprivation, and travel bans. We then identify the mechanisms shaping how diaspora members responded to this repertoire. The paper concludes with implications for research on transnational diaspora activism, globalized authoritarianism, and collective dimensions of the repression-dissent nexus.

diaspora, global social movements, transnational advocacy networks, transnational families, transnationalism
1470-2266
735-751
Moss, Dana M.
a51218c5-5748-47fd-8bc3-80d5fcae1d61
Michaelsen, Marcus
50052da7-ea5d-4ad9-aa59-2db586a4d727
Kennedy, Gillian
3d1ab920-6986-41f5-8d25-653e793baf92
Moss, Dana M.
a51218c5-5748-47fd-8bc3-80d5fcae1d61
Michaelsen, Marcus
50052da7-ea5d-4ad9-aa59-2db586a4d727
Kennedy, Gillian
3d1ab920-6986-41f5-8d25-653e793baf92

Moss, Dana M., Michaelsen, Marcus and Kennedy, Gillian (2022) Going after the family: Transnational repression and the proxy punishment of Middle Eastern diasporas. Global Networks, 22 (4), 735-751. (doi:10.1111/glob.12372).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Diasporas play a critical role in home-country politics by supporting social, political, and economic change therein. Yet, regimes countermobilize against activists abroad by repressing their diasporas. This paper investigates a widespread but overlooked method in the transnational repression toolkit: that of ‘proxy punishment’, that is, the abuse of family members at home as a means to manipulate and subjugate dissidents abroad. Using 246 original interviews with diaspora activists from Syria, Iran, Egypt, and Libya, the analysis demonstrates that regimes deployed five tactics against diaspora members’ non-activist families at home: harm and confinement, threats and harassment, forced participation in regime propaganda and slander, resource deprivation, and travel bans. We then identify the mechanisms shaping how diaspora members responded to this repertoire. The paper concludes with implications for research on transnational diaspora activism, globalized authoritarianism, and collective dimensions of the repression-dissent nexus.

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Accepted/In Press date: 10 May 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 May 2022
Published date: October 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors are deeply grateful to Maria Koinova for encouraging the formation of this paper and to Gerasimos Tsourapas for his invaluable comments on an earlier draft. Research conducted by Dana M. Moss was made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation's Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 2014–15 (#1433642) and the University of California, Irvine's Kugelman Citizen Peacebuilding Research Fellowship, the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies’ Research Award, the Center for the Study of Democracy, and the Department of Sociology's Summer Fellowship. Marcus Michaelsen received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 845988 (DIGIACT) for the writing of this paper. His research was also made possible by the Information Controls Fellowship of the Open Technology Fund. Funding for Gillian Kennedy was granted by The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (No. ECF-2017-075). All research was conducted in accordance with the authors’ respective institutional permissions and/or Internal Review Board protocols for the use of human subjects in research. Funding Information: The authors are deeply grateful to Maria Koinova for encouraging the formation of this paper and to Gerasimos Tsourapas for his invaluable comments on an earlier draft. Research conducted by Dana M. Moss was made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation's Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 2014–15 (#1433642) and the University of California, Irvine's Kugelman Citizen Peacebuilding Research Fellowship, the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies’ Research Award, the Center for the Study of Democracy, and the Department of Sociology's Summer Fellowship. Marcus Michaelsen received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Grant Agreement No. 845988 (DIGIACT) for the writing of this paper. His research was also made possible by the Information Controls Fellowship of the Open Technology Fund. Funding for Gillian Kennedy was granted by The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (No. ECF‐2017‐075). All research was conducted in accordance with the authors’ respective institutional permissions and/or Internal Review Board protocols for the use of human subjects in research. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords: diaspora, global social movements, transnational advocacy networks, transnational families, transnationalism

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 467498
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/467498
ISSN: 1470-2266
PURE UUID: 30e079e3-0eaf-48d4-8741-6e637679b52e

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Date deposited: 12 Jul 2022 16:30
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:09

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Contributors

Author: Dana M. Moss
Author: Marcus Michaelsen
Author: Gillian Kennedy

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