Diaspora studies and Middle Eastern studies come together in this collection of 15 detailed case studies. The contributors demonstrate that concepts central to diaspora such as "homeland", "host state", "exile", "longing", "memory" and "return" have been deconstructed and reinstated with new meaning through each unique diasporic experience. Situating communities within their own narratives of conflict, resistance, war, genocide, persecution, displacement and migration, this collection addresses the ways in which different groups have struggled to claim and negotiate a space for themselves in the Middle East. It shows how these efforts have been aided and hampered by the legal, historical, social, political, economic, colonial and post-colonial peculiarities of the region.