Chapter 1 introduces the phenomenon of “democratic drain” – the steady depletion of democratic political capital in migrant-sending countries worldwide, derived from the departure of citizens who hold more liberal democratic values than the countrymen they leave behind. It contextualizes democratic drain in the more established understanding of “brain drain,” outlines its analogous consequences, and identifies the dissidents and “demigrants” that drive it. Just as brain drain can leave countries poorer and less productive, democratic drain can weaken the prospects for liberal democracy and reduce barriers to democratic backsliding by authoritarian governments. After a brief discussion of the thorny implications of “democratic drain” for international development and democracy promotion, this chapter previews the book’s findings and content.

This broad survey of select Aegean islands and the Greek-speaking coast of western Anatolia reviews the revival of settlements in these areas, after the collapse of Bronze Age civilization. Opening and closing with the imagined vision of this world in Homeric epic, the survey traces the evolution of regional styles in art and architecture, linked to independent polities that developed patterns in self-government that became the Greek polis. Early Iron Age sites, tombs, and artifacts from Euboea, the Cyclades, East Greek islands, the Dodecanese and the mainland areas of Aeolis, Ionia, and Caria are examined against the mythological paradigms of migration and Greek colonization; these regions demonstrate widespread continuity behind the later legends of a wave of Hellenism, and enjoyed close and fertile contacts with neighboring Anatolian cultures such as Phrygia and Lydia. Such relationships fostered innovations in the Archaic period such as the first monumental temples and sculptures in marble, and the evolution of poetic genres, among island and coastal entrepreneurs in collaboration (as well as conflict) with a succession of inland empires, until the Ionian revolt against Achaemenid Persia.

Chapter 2 profiles prospective migrants around the world. Based on global polling, this chapter answers three related questions: What are the demographic and psychological attributes of prospective migrants? Do prospective migrants hold more liberal democratic values than their countrymen? And do prospective migrants prefer democratic destinations? Demographically, prospective migrants are likely to be younger, educated, socially connected, and open-minded adults. And crucially, they hold less authoritarian and more democratic political values than their countrymen.

This means that if they depart, the society they leave behind will not only become older, less educated, and more insular; it means that it will also become less democratic and more authoritarian in its orientation. Based on a conjoint survey design in five countries in the Middle East and North Africa, this chapter later finds that demigrants’ initial destination preferences draw them to democracies that reflect the political and civic values they hold, even if this means sacrificing their material well-being to some extent. Not only are many authoritarian countries being depleted of people with democratic values, these individuals are inclined to self-sort into a dichotomized world of free, democratic destinations and increasingly authoritarian holdouts.

Chapter 4 engages the average people behind these trends. In particular, it tells the stories of Hungarians compelled to leave after the reelection of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to a fourth consecutive term with a parliamentary supermajority, Serbs crestfallen after the reelection of President Aleksandar Vučić to a second term, and Russians fleeing the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent domestic crackdown on dissent. Some mundane, some extraordinary, their first-person narratives display the household considerations behind a mass population phenomenon. The chapter then leverages a unique study of European public opinion to reveal the way that Eastern Europeans who move West under the European Union’s free mobility rules likely hold more liberal democratic proclivities than those in their countries of origin who wish to migrate, and how those prospective migrants hold more liberal democratic proclivities than those of their countrymen who don’t wish to move at all – a sliding scale of liberal democratic views among people with the same origins.

Chapter 3 takes a closer look at the mechanics of Democratic Drain. More specifically, it asks when demigrants are likely to depart. Focusing on 127 countries worldwide, it finds that people’s interest in emigrating spikes in the immediate aftermath of national elections when an authoritarian-leaning party or ruler is elected to public office. Importantly, this effect is limited only to people who hold expectations of democratic norms and institutional integrity. Those who question the honesty of the election, suspect corruption among public officials, or feel that freedom of speech is constrained are significantly more likely to say they would like to leave when faced with the future deconsolidation of their country’s democratic institutions. This shows the way that elections are precipitating events for individuals disappointed by the results and concerned about the future of their civil life. Previously unnoticed over the ebb and flow of electoral cycles, Democratic Drain removes the people who are most likely to voice their dissatisfaction and most likely to demand institutional integrity in less democratic spaces.

Chapter 5 considers the possibility that, while people with liberal and democratic proclivities may leave their countries of origin, they may influence the democratization of their homelands from abroad – a possible “democratic gain.” Could emigrants’ advocacy from abroad offset the effects of their departure on prospects for democracy? After the oppressive Assad dictatorship was challenged by opposition groups in 2011, many activists in Syria’s massive diaspora mobilized to support and influence people living in rebel-held territory. However, in a social network analysis of Syrians in regions governed by the Free Syrian Army in 2015, there is almost no evidence of their impact. Despite their presumed prominence in the West, a majority of Syrians could not even name a single pro-democratic leader from abroad – let alone identify their influence. And perhaps most damningly, the departure of former Syrian citizens for other countries was viewed by most respondents as an abandonment of their cause – an offense worse than being previously complicit with the oppressive Assad regime. Taken together with other research showing the limits of democratic diaspora activism, the chapter concludes that the potential for “democratic gain” is severely constrained.

Chapter 6 concludes the book by turning the lens to exiled dissidents to contextualize the impact of emigrants’ departures. Unlike emigrants, who may hold opposing views but depart voluntarily without government involvement, dissidents are often pressured or coerced to leave their countries of origin because of their opposition to the government and its policies. As organizers of democratic movements, they offer a unique perspective about the cumulative effect of people’s emigration over time. Based on two dozen interviews with activists from across the Middle East several years after the Arab uprisings, the chapter tells their stories and demonstrates what their loss has meant to the pro-democratic movements they left behind. Through their narratives, the extent to which their political agendas rely on rank-and-file supporters who are also positioned to emigrate can be discerned. The chapter concludes by considering the political and policy implications of Democratic Drain.

This chapter explores the relationship between migration dynamics, policies and the establishment of oil-based, rentier social contracts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Spanning from the 1930s to the present day, the text examines the pivotal role of migration policies in defining the distribution of hydrocarbon rent benefits among Gulf citizens. Notably, it explores how migration policies have created a unique demographic makeup in Gulf populations, marked by a significant dominance of foreign citizens yet with limited socio-political claims.

Fluctuating oil prices influenced the evolution of social contracts and prompted a ‘demographic engineering’ of migrant numbers and diversification by origin. While unemployment emerged among nationals and put Gulf states at risk of political destabilisation after the Arab uprisings, the looming contraction of oil rent compelled the GCC countries to diversify their economies and boost employment for Gulf nationals.

Examining the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and economic downturn, the chapter suggests a deepening of the rift within foreign resident populations. As Gulf regimes must sustain high economic growth rates to create jobs for nationals, they compete to attract and retain increasing numbers of ‘high value-added’ expatriates, through promoting economic inclusion, eroding the kafala and granting limited social rights. Recent social protection measures, however, incurred limited improvements for low-wage ‘detainable and deportable’ workers. The chapter unveils migration policies as a product of ideologies, reflecting conceptions about country, nation, history, origin, people, citizenship and welfare.

This chapter considers modernity from the perspective of the self-fashioning subject, stressing both the centrality of Jews to European modernity and their precarity. It pairs two contexts of change: the central-European crucible of Jewish modernity from the 1880s to 1920s; and the influence of psychoanalysis and Freudian-related thought. Torn between assimilation and collective identification against discrimination and antisemitism, many exchanged rural Judaism for emancipated intellectuality and leftwing political action. By the 1920s, a transnationally scaled antagonism pitted cosmopolitanism and this mobile intellectual culture of the highly educated against exclusivist ideas of national belonging. Freud’s life and career exemplified those histories. As a “scientific” approach to the study of mind, consciousness, and emotions, Freudianism reached far beyond the professional therapeutics of psychoanalysis itself. It joined far wider thinking about personhood and the unconscious, including other psychologies, spiritualism, esoteric knowledge, and the occult. It appealed to anyone seeking enlightenment by means of a self-consciously crafted modern self.

The chapter analyzes the history of the first Pentecostals in Puerto Rico through the memoir of Juan L. Lugo. This document, published by Lugo circa 1950, recounts his memories as an immigrant in Hawaii, his initial experience with Pentecostal faith, and details his eventual development as a minister ordained by the council of The Assemblies of God Church in the United States. Based on his account, this chapter will address several historiographical considerations about the relationship between forced migration and the exponential growth of Pentecostal movements, particularly in the transition from the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth. It is no coincidence that this religious current found fertile ground among the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. As such, the socioeconomic and political panorama in which the birth of Pentecostalism in Puerto Rico took place will also be explained. Finally, the discursive and doctrinal trends emblematic of the founding period of Pentecostalism on the island will be highlighted.

In this chapter, I analyze a genre of travel writing on Kuwait that has surged over the past decade. I specifically explore a series of self-published travelogues written by Western, white women who have previously taught in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education in Kuwait. These narratives, which are couched in white supremacist and eugenicist ideologies, offer insights into discourses of racialization and white superiority in Kuwait. I use these travelogues as a starting point to think about whiteness in Kuwait and its connection to global white supremacy. I argue that one needs to read these self-published travelogues as ethnographic data to understand how gendered race/whiteness (and white supremacy), as deployed in the self-reported experiences of Western, white traveloguers, plays out in various educational settings across Kuwait, a country that is not considered by anthropologists to be a fruitful site for ethnographic or racial inquiry.

Chapter 1 starts by exploring the history of the term ‘settlement’. Having traced its emergence in the seventeenth century, the chapter investigates the making of the ‘settlement’ act of 1662. A study of parliamentary records uncovers the emergence of new legislation in the post-Restoration context and illuminates the final stages of the process when amendments were made that shaped the settlement legislation for centuries to come. Subsequent amendments are studied, leading to the introduction of new ‘settlement certificates’. The third section traces the spread of the ‘settlement’ system and its impact on both local administrations and the negotiating strategies of the poor – central issues pursued throughout the book. These explorations draw on records from two corners of England, Sussex in the south-east and Lancashire in the north-west. Additional sources are employed from metropolitan London and other localities.

In Chapter 3, notions of kinship and family come to the fore. Once belonging had been articulated by the settlement laws, and moreover was seen to have been invested not only in individuals but in families, the question soon arose: who counted as ‘family’ for the purposes of the law? For example, when and under what circumstances would the status of ‘child’ expire? What would be the effects of marriage and remarriage? A study of legal sources helps distil the changing regulations – another unintended consequence of the settlement laws which affected millions, and echoes today. A case study concerning one woman illustrates the effects of the settlement laws on kinship and community relations. Local and regional samples suggest how the law was implemented in near and distant localities.

The Caribbean is a vast geopolitical region that stretches for a span of 2,754,000 square kilometers and includes approximately 7,000 island land masses. Linguistically speaking, the Caribbean hosts an extraordinarily wide variety of languages and dialects. The sheer magnitude of inhabited islands and the accompanying geographical and social variation within each island locale sets the Anglophone Caribbean apart for other insular areas of the English-speaking world such as Ireland or the South Atlantic. English is the third most widely spoken language in the Caribbean, following Spanish and French. It is the official language of twelve Caribbean as well as of the seven British Overseas Territories in the region. This chapter provides an overview of the sociolinguistic histories and features of the English varieties of the Caribbean region and demonstrates that there are significant traits that serve to define the region. Additionally, it demonstrates that there are differences between the speech of the European-identifying and African-identifying populations of the Caribbean.