Race in Transit - by Randa Tawil

About the Book

"At the turn of the twentieth century, life in Ottoman Syria was upended by European and US colonial and capital expansion. Many people responded by migrating to the United States. In doing so, they stepped into the world of international migration, where they had to navigate overlapping states and migration infrastructures--shipping companies and ticketing agents, health inspectors and border police, universities and kinship networks--that each facilitated, restricted, and policed movement. With this book, Randa Tawil follows the itineraries of the early Syrian diaspora, stitching together migrants' travels across archives from Beirut, Marseille, Liverpool, Manila, Washington, D.C., Michigan, and Texas. She reveals the overlapping and contradicting ways in which race was forged globally in the early twentieth century and its effects on Syrians in the United States. Syrian migrants encountered multiple imperial and national legal regimes during transit, and their varying relationships with different empires set the conditions under which migrants were considered "desirable" or "undesirable" once they reached US borders. Focusing on the experiences of those on the move, Race in Transit makes migrants the agents of a world history that has too often relegated them to the sidelines"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

At the turn of the twentieth century, life in Ottoman Syria was upended by European and US colonial and capital expansion. Many people responded by migrating to the United States. In doing so, they stepped into the world of international migration, where they had to navigate overlapping states and migration infrastructures--shipping companies and ticketing agents, health inspectors and border police, universities and kinship networks--that each facilitated, restricted, and policed movement.

With this book, Randa Tawil follows the itineraries of the early Syrian diaspora, stitching together migrants' travels across archives from Beirut, Marseille, Liverpool, Manila, Washington, D.C., Michigan, and Texas. She reveals the overlapping and contradicting ways in which race was forged globally in the early twentieth century and its effects on Syrians in the United States. Syrian migrants encountered multiple imperial and national legal regimes during transit, and their varying relationships with different empires set the conditions under which migrants were considered "desirable" or "undesirable" once they reached US borders. Focusing on the experiences of those on the move, Race in Transit makes migrants the agents of a world history that has too often relegated them to the sidelines.

Review Quotes

"Fascinating and original, Race in Transit examines the transnational routes of Syrian migration. Randa Tawil traces diasporic itineraries as a means of elaborating the 'migration infrastructures' that displaced, enabled, and restricted movement, challenging received notions of race and place."--Lisa Lowe, author of The Intimacies of Four Continents

"In a work brimming with archival texture and theoretical innovation, Randa Tawil tells the beautiful and painful history of Syrians in movement from Beirut to Manila, from New York to Marseille. Tawil challenges state formations and national borders with brilliance and rigor. The new strategies, visions, and politics she offers could not be more urgent."--Sherene Seikaly, author of Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine

About the Author

Randa Tawil is a scholar of empire and migration. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Yale University.