Mari Toivanen, The Kobane Generation: Kurdish Diaspora Mobilising in France. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2021, 294 pp., ISBN: 9789523690431.
Throughout history, Kurds encountered various tragedies, starting with the division of Kurdish land or ‘Kurdistan’ by the imperial powers to the political alienation, discrimination, and genocide by the dominant nations, including the Arabs, Turkish, and Persians. Moreover, the persistent political insecurity in the region resulted in an influx of migrant waves toward the West and the world. In the last decade, and especially starting at the beginning of 2014, Kurds have faced quite a virulent and destructive threat by the Islamic State (ISIS), which utterly shattered the lives of tens of thousands of people. Consequently, the Kurdish political and cultural life in Iraq and Syria has been deeply impacted and, in some places, completely destroyed. At the time, Western allies supported the Kurdish troops in fighting against the Islamic State in the region, and Kurdish activists in the diaspora across many European countries also provided support. Ever since, voluminous books have been published on nationalism (Gunes, 2019; Vali, 2020), migration (Bocheńska, 2018), mobilisation (Schøtt, 2021; Zalme, 2020), and the Kurdish diaspora (Keles, 2015; Mahmod, 2016). The Kobane Generation: Kurdish Diaspora Mobilising in France, by Mari Toivanen, is one of these books.
The Kobane Generation is an interesting and well-written book that recognizes and addresses the experiences and real-life problems of second- generation Kurds in France. Throughout the book, Mari Toivanen explains a series of events that facilitated the formulation of Kurdish transnational participation in the diaspora. As a start, Toivanen highlights the role of the Kobane region in dispersing mobilisation in several Middle Eastern countries: Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. She also considers how the siege of Kobane put the Kurds more into the spotlight internationally, strengthened the bond between the Kurdish people in the diaspora and the region, and helped create a united Kurdish community in Europe. By combining unique empirical evidence and contemporary sociological theories of diaspora and transnationalism, the author addresses multiple themes and events concerning second-generation Kurdish migrants – the ‘Kobane generation’.
Overall, the book can be seen as a significant theoretical contribution to Kurdish diaspora studies, as it offers comprehensive literature and observation on the Kurdish diaspora, transnationalism, mobilisation, and second- generation Kurdish migrants in France and across many European countries. Besides, it contributes to our understanding of mobilisation and national identity formation in the periphery of the Kurdish diaspora by examining the small but well-established second-generation Kurdish community in France.
The book is divided into three main parts containing seven chapters in total. The first section, titled ‘background’, consists of two chapters. In the first chapter of the book, Toivanen introduces her motivation and aims for writing this book. Next, she provides insights into the recurring and principal key concepts and themes she uses. Further in the chapter, she explains the necessity of having a book that concentrates on the ‘diaspora’s transnational engagement with the focus on the second generation’s transnational participation from the perspective of diaspora contribution’ (p. 16). Then, in chapter 2, she discusses the recent historical events in Kurdistan and the diaspora, followed by an ‘overview of the related theoretical and empirical debates concerning diaspora mobilisation and transnational participation towards the ‘homeland’ (p. 19).
The book’s second part is about providing background and contextualising the Kurdish population’s underlying ‘geopolitical tensions and divisions’ in the Middle East and in the diaspora under the title ‘Here and There: Between Kurdistan and Europe’. Starting from the history of the Kurds, the historical division of Kurdish-inhabited regions, and the political consequences of being a stateless nation, Toivanen goes on to discuss the history of majority-minority affairs related to Kurds in three national contexts, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. She further confers the current political situation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, followed by an overview of the current situation in Kurdistan in the new millennium (p. 69). Finally, in chapter 4, she explains the intersection between individual life stories and major historical events and contextualises the Kurdish diasporic mobilisation in Paris in 2010.
The third part, titled ‘Mobilization and Participation towards Kurdistan’, is designed to present the empirical data and collected materials, including interviews with first- and second-generation diaspora members and non-diaspora activists, observations, and related online materials. The section is divided into three chapters – chapters 5, 6, and 7. Chapter 5 examines the ‘mobilization and transnational participation of Kurdish diaspora communities in France in 2010’. Toivanen explains how the ‘transformative events’ (e.g., the Kobane Siege and the assassination of three activists in Paris) have united the Kurdish communities across Europe and increased the ‘passive’ and ‘silent’ modes of mobilisation among diaspora members (p. 128). She further draws our attention to the impact of the political changes that shaped Kurdish national identity and the views of Western societies towards the Kurdish case.
In chapter 6, Toivanen extends her discussion to the second generation of Kurdish parentage. She critically addresses a series of questions: ‘How did a series of events shape mobilisations in Paris?’ ‘What repertoire of actions does the mobilisation entail?’ ‘What factors shaped the observed mobilisation?’ In the later part of the chapter, she debates the mobilisation in Paris in the context of political ambivalence towards the Kurdish question, namely concerning the criminalisation of certain Kurdish political parties, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) in Europe generally and in France specifically.
In chapter 7, Toivanen explores how the second generation of Kurdish parentage perceived the battle of Kobane and the Paris assassinations and notes the importance of the Kobane siege for the second generation. Next, she pays attention to the differences between mobilisation experiences and transnational activities among first and second generations individuals and the outcome of mobilisation connected with global and diasporic activities and engagement between the two generations. Besides, she explains how second-generation participation in Kurdish-inhabited areas should be understood as a form of ethnonational participation or manifestation of diasporic belonging. Finally, in the last section of the chapter, Toivanen discusses the prominence of the Kobane siege and the Kurds’ combat against ISIS in the international media, the significance of Kobane in shaping and reshaping the national identity of the second generation, and the importance of understanding their ‘Kurdishness’. Likewise, she discusses the role of the online dimension in constructing the ‘homeland’.
Overall, this book is a compelling and much-needed reflection on the topics of transnationalism and second-generation migrants. It is an opportunity to explore the Kurds’ political issues and a wide range of topics around France’s Kurdish diaspora and second-generation and transnational individuals. In other terms, the book can be used as a ‘guide-post’ or a ‘map’ for studying the Kurds in other parts of the world due to the presence of rich data.
Furthermore, the book provides essential reading for anybody looking for a comprehensive view of the Kurdish diaspora, mobilisation, transnationalism, and second-generation Kurds. It also contains a practical and theoretical framework for studying the Kurds as a diaspora and transnational community. To make the book even more interesting, the author employs multiple data collection methods and cohesively presents numerous examples with a flawless writing style. However, it would make all the qualitative case studies more conclusive if the author examined some quantitative data or equally drew on the quantitative method(s).
To sum up, as a linguist and an avid Ph.D. researcher working on a multidisciplinary topic on the Kurdish diaspora in the UK, I find this work to be seminal in the developing field of Kurdish studies. Moreover, the well-organised data chapters, and the main structure of the book from start to end, form a bridge that connects the relevant theories and practices with the contemporary and topical Kurdish question. For these reasons, I highly recommend it to everyone who desires to generate an understanding of the Kurds and the lived experiences of the Kurdish diaspora. This book should be particularly beneficial to university students at all levels and early career researchers who seek to understand diaspora, mobilisation, and transnationalisation in the Kurdish context.