Migration As Anchorage - Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London

On a temporary visit to London, a Palestinian family found themselves unable to return to Gaza during Israel's 2008 war on their city. Understanding their stay in London as an act of 'anchoring', the family opened a Palestinian café and sought to make their lives - as individuals, as a family and as a community - viable in the face of uncertainty. By following the stories of various family members as they struggled to recreate a sense of home, this moving ethnography introduces the concept of anchorage as a novel lens to understand migration, home and place, highlighting the fluidity, temporariness and serendipity of these experiences.

About the author

Michelle Obeid is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She is also the author of Border Lives: An Ethnography of a Lebanese Town in Changing Times (Brill, 2019).

Product details

• Authors: Michelle Obeid, Michelle Obeid Obeid
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.08.2025
• EAN: 9781836951421
• ISBN: 978-1-83695-142-1
• No. of pages: 198
• Subjects: Guides; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Refugees, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Migration, immigration & emigration, Migration, immigration and emigration, Social and cultural anthropology, Palestine