School of Social and Political Science

Dr İdil Akıncı-Pérez

Job Title

Lecturer in Race and Social Policy

Photo
Image Idil Akinci

Street (Address)

15a George Square

City (Address)

Edinburgh

Post code (Address)

EH8 9LD

Research interests

Research interests

My work examines the role of immigration and citizenship regimes in generating inequalities from a global perspective. More specifically, I explore the lived experiences of temporary migration systems and citizenship exclusion from a multigenerational lens, focusing on strategies individuals and families develop to secure long-term stability—such as acquiring a better passport or permanent residency. I focus on non-citizen groups from low to mid-income countries, who hold non-Western passports and have limited socio-economic resources, in the Arab Gulf States. By anchoring this work in the Gulf, home to the world’s largest South-South immigration corridor, I uncover new and often invisible inequalities within the ‘global South’ and their implications for complex, onward global migration journeys, and for the meaning and value of citizenship.

Since 2021, I have focused on the experiences of aging migrants and their life plans after retirement in the United Arab Emirates. In light of new visa reforms and voluntary pension schemes, I examine decision-making processes around where to retire and how to achieve financial security in old age. This work uncovers the complex interdependencies between younger and older generations, portraying retirement as a “family matter” in the Gulf.

 

 

Project grants

Lund Mission Society (2021-2022)

Together with Dr Ulrich Schmiedel from the School of Divinity, in this project we examined the sociological conditions under which religious diversity can act as a force for cohesion, rather than conflict, in pluralist societies. 

Alexander Humboldt Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship, GIGA Middle East (2021)

This project provided insights into a number of strategies older migrants develop in order to navigate restrictive immigration regimes upon retirement in the UAE. Findings are published in a special issue in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2022).

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, (2018-2019)

In this project, I investigated the impact of changing circumstances in countries of origin (or nationality) for migrants, when they do not have secure residency in their host countries, even after decades and generations. In particular, I explored how the war in Syria significantly reconfigured a sense of residential insecurity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for some of the UAE born Syrian nationals, and instigated an imminent urge to pursue long-term security elsewhere, including through asylum seeking. Findings are published in International Migration Review (2023).

Chancellor’s International Research Excellence Scheme, University of Sussex, fully funded doctoral research (2014-2018)

My doctoral research explored experiences of migration and citizenship among different legal groups in the context of Dubai. Some of the findings are published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2019) and Ethnic and Racial Studies (2020)

 

Background

Prior to joining the Social Policy department at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, I worked as an Early Career Teaching and Research Fellow, cross-appointed between the Department of Sociology, the Alwaleed Centre, and IMES. I convene a course titled Race, Power and Social Policy, which examines why and how race matters for the study and practice of social policy, while exploring the global reconfigurations of power and inequality today. I also taught the Muslims in Europe (UG/PG) module, co-led the Muslims in Europe Research Cluster, and contributed to interdisciplinary courses such as Race and Ethnicity, Decolonial Research Methods, and Key Concepts in Global Social Change.

I hold a PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex (2018), where I explored the everyday experiences of national identity and citizenship among young Arab migrant communities and Emirati citizens in Dubai. I also conducted fieldwork in Dubai with South Asian communities during 2012-2013 as part of my MA in Sociology at City, University of London.

Additionally, I have taught various undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology, migration, human geography, and social anthropology at both the University of Sussex and Zayed University in Dubai.

 

Select Publications

İdil Akıncı (2023) Circumstantial Citizenship: UAE Born Syrians and Their Complex Journeys to Long-Term Security. International Migration Review, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183231162625

İdil Akıncı (2022) ‘Ways to stick around’: im/mobility strategies of ageing, temporary migrants in Dubai, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2115627

İdil Akıncı (2021) Ageing, Temporary Migrants: Life beyond Retirement in Dubai, GIGA Focus Middle East, 6, Hamburg: German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-76250-2

İdil Akıncı (2021) Different Type of Refugee: Onward Journeys of Gulf-Born Migrants from Politically Volatile Countries, E-IR, Different Type of Refugee: Onward Journeys of Gulf-Born Migrants from Politically Volatile Countries

İdil Akıncı (2021) Talking to Young People about Being a National: Fieldwork Reflections from Dubai. In: L. Charles, I. Pappé and M. Ronchi, ed., Researching the Middle East Cultural, Conceptual, Theoretical and Practical Issues. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
 

İdil Akıncı (2020) Dressing the nation? Symbolizing Emirati national identity and boundaries through national dress, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43:10, 1776-1794, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2019.1665697

İdil Akıncı (2020) Language, Nation, Difference: Everyday Language Tactics of Young Emiratis. In. N. Allam et al, Gulf Cooperation Council Culture and Identities in the New Millennium: Resilience, Transformation, (Re) Creation and Diffusion, Contemporary Gulf Studies, Palgrave Macmillan
 

İdil Akıncı (2019) Culture in the ‘politics of identity’: conceptions of national identity and citizenship among second-generation non-Gulf Arab migrants in Dubai, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46:11, 2309-2325, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1583095


 

Book Reviews

Akinci, Idil. (2018). Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work, and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait A. Ahmad: Duke University Press 2017. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(8), pp.1341-1343.

Akinci, Idil. (2016). Migrant Dubai: low wage workers and the construction of a global city. L. Kathiravelu: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(8), pp.1341-1343.

Akinci, Idil. (2016). Impossible Citizens: Dubai's Indian Diaspora N. Vora Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2013. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 27(1), pp.131-132.

 

Other

Akıncı, İdil. (2024) ‘Think migrants just live off the state? Here are 41,500 reasons why the opposite is true’, The Scotsman, 30 June. Available at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/think-migrants-just-live-off-the-state-here-are-41500-reasons-why-the-opposite-is-true-4683791?r=9435#disqus-comment-section 

Akinci, Idil. (2021) Ageing, Temporary Migrants: Life beyond Retirement in Dubai, GIGA Focus, Ageing, Temporary Migrants: Life beyond Retirement in Dubai

Akinci, Idil. (2020) Museums as Political Institutions of National Identity Reproduction: Are Gulf States an Exception?, LSE Middle East Blog, Museums as Political Institutions of National Identity Reproduction: Are Gulf States an Exception? | Middle East Centre (lse.ac.uk)

Akinci, Idil. (2018). Why more research on the bottom-up constructions of national identity in the Gulf states is important, LSE Middle East Blog, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2018/12/16/why-more-research-on-the-bottom-up-constructions-of-national-identity-in-the-gulf-states-is-needed/

Akinci, Idil. (2018). The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society: Open Democracy, The multiple roots of Emiratiness: the cosmopolitan history of Emirati society | openDemocracy

Akinci, Idil. (2013) Dubai’s temporary but settled citizens: Researching the second generation “Dubaite-South Asians”, Migrant-rights.org, Dubai’s temporary but settled citizens: Researching the second generation “Dubaite-South Asians” | Migrant-Rights.org (migrant-rights.org)

Works within

İdil Akıncı's Research Explorer profile