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In the late 2000s, after the implementation of European policies to prevent and criminalize irregular migration, a new form of human smuggling—ransom smuggling—appeared in North Africa. This article is an analysis of ransom smuggling of Somali migrants, based on anthropological fieldwork in Germany and Kenya. Ransom smuggling is dangerous and complex, involving both human smugglers and hostage takers, but I argue that Somali migrants—especially younger ones—make use of this form of smuggling despite its risks because it is cheaper and easier to organize than other options. I describe the major elements of Somali ransom smuggling, which involves transit through the Sahara and Libya. I focus on the various actors involved, and the responsibilities and burdens that accrue to the migrants who transit a system that accounts for their lives as commodities for trade.

AbstractWe discuss the balancing acts of inclusion and exclusion by analysing how Somali migrants in Germany attempt to manoeuvre between various norms, individual interests and various social networks. Building on Glick Schiller and Caglar (2016), whose work on urban sociabilities emphasizes social relations in which people act as equals, we argue that ethnic (self‐)identification is important as it serves as a basis for boundary‐making and for bonding within and bridging and linking between groups. Thus, a focus on sociability and ethnic identification (as a category of praxis) can, in some cases, go hand in hand. Moreover, we argue that inclusion into local Somali communities, which is often discussed in public discourse as leading to exclusion from German society, helps to establish connections. Simultaneously, exclusion through racism can lead to (self‐)isolation of Somalis, but also places pressure on younger Somalis in particular to forge alliances with non‐Somali Germans to stabilize their situation. Balancing social inclusion and exclusion among Somali migrants in Germany therefore can have ambiguous and at times paradoxical outcomes.

Die Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung erlebt in den deutschsprachigen Regionen seit etwa 2015 einen Boom. Dieses Handbuch erschließt das Feld in seiner Breite und reflektiert zugleich kritisch den Forschungsstand. Teil I des Bandes diskutiert auf theoretischer Ebene die historische Entwicklung des Forschungsfeldes, seine (trans-)disziplinären Zugänge sowie forschungsethische Fragen. Teil II bietet eine Diskussion wichtiger Kernbegriffe und-konzepte des Forschungsfelds. Teil III ist empirisch ausgerichtet und beschäftigt sich mit Flucht und Geflüchteten in Bezug auf Akteure und politische Handlungsmuster. In Teil IV werden schließlich Fluchtbewegungen und -politiken der Weltregionen in den Blick genommen. Das Handbuch richtet sich zugleich an Forschende und Lehrende, wie auch an Studierende und Interessierte aus der Praxis. Mit Beiträgen von Samia Aden | Vasiliki Apatzidou | Birgit Behrensen | Marcel Berlinghoff | Nadine Biehler | Veronika Bilger | Hanno Brankamp | Helen Breit | Miriam Bürer | Frank Caestecker | David Chiavacci | Christina Clark-Kazak | Norbert Cyrus | Deepra Dandekar | Corinna A. Di Stefano | Daniel Diekmann | Marco Dohle | Heike Drotbohm | Franck Düvell | Eva Ecker | Marcus Engler | Benjamin Etzold | Astrid M. Fellner | Valentin Feneberg | Karim Fereidooni | Annett Fleischer | Heidrun Friese | Christiane Fröhlich | Joanna Jadwiga Fröhlich | Martin Geiger | Lea Gelardi | Birgit Glorius | Danielle Gluns | Simon Goebel | Lidwina Gundacker | Leila Hadj Abdou | Niklas Harder | Sebastian Harnisch | Kaya Haßlinger | Zine-Eddine Hathat | Antonia Heinrich | Jens H. Hellmann | Sophie Hinger | Jannes Jacobsen | Rose Jaji | Ivan Josipovic | Pawel Kaczmarczyk | Ole Kelm | J. Olaf Kleist | Anne Koch | Martin Koch | Irena Kogan | Judith Kohlenberger | Stefan Kordel | Annette Korntheuer | Yuliya Kosyakova | Ulrike Krause | René Kreichauf | Martin Kroh | Tony Kushner | Laura Lambert | Annika Lems | Katharina Lenner | Carolin Leutloff-Grandits | Derek Lutterbeck | Mona Massumi | Jana Mayer | Laura K. McAdam-Otto | Amrei Meier | Agathe Menetrier | Antje Missbach | Alexander-Kenneth Nagel | Klaus Neumann | Tim Neumann | Dennis Odukoya | Claudia Olivier-Mensah | Jochen Oltmer | Marta Pachocka | Jannis Panagiotidis | Bernd Parusel | Charlton Payne | Simone Pfeifer | Katharina Potinius | Patrice G. Poutrus | Ludger Pries | Franziska Reiffen | Sieglinde Rosenberger | Markus Rudolf | Marlene Rummel | Philipp Sandermann | Hannes Schammann | Tabea Scharrer | Paul Scheibelhofer | Albert Scherr | Karin Scherschel | David Schiefer | Dana Schmalz | Caroline Schmitt | Anett Schmitz | Gerald Schneider | Hanne Schneider | Benjamin Schraven | Nadine Segadlo | Dagmar Soennecken | Martin Sökefeld | Moritz Sommer | Sebastian Sons | David Spenger | Susanne Spindler | Elias Steinhilper | Laura Stielike | Andreas Streinzer | Magdalena Suerbaum | Dietrich Thränhardt | Jelena Tošić | Rano Turaeva | Yasemin Uçan | Hella von Unger | Judith Vey | Dominik Wach | Christian Walburg | Florian Weber | Natalie Welfens | Laura Wenzel | Manuela Westphal | Anne-Kathrin Will | Marek Winkel | Sabrina Zajak | Franzisca Zanker | Natascha Zaun

Im Juni 2023 erschien im Nomos-Verlag das erste deutschsprachige Handbuch der Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung, herausgegeben von Tabea Scharrer, Birgit Glorius, J. Olaf Kleist und Marcel Berlinghoff. In über 100 Begriffskapitel werden wichtige Themen und Begriffe aus dem Feld der Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung kurz und prägnant für eine breite Leser*innenschaft aufbereitet und Hinweise zur vertiefenden Lektüre geboten. In diesem Beitrag erläutern die Herausgeber*innen die Grundidee des Handbuchs, schildern den Entstehungsprozess und geben einen Ausblick auf die weitere Arbeit mit und an dem Handbuch.

Die Flucht- und Flüchtlingsforschung erlebt in den deutschsprachigen Regionen seit etwa 2015 einen Boom. Dieses Handbuch erschließt das Feld in seiner Breite und reflektiert zugleich kritisch den Forschungsstand. Teil I des Bandes diskutiert auf theoretischer Ebene die historische Entwicklung des Forschungsfeldes, seine (trans-)disziplinären Zugänge sowie forschungsethische Fragen. Teil II bietet eine Diskussion wichtiger Kernbegriffe und -konzepte des Forschungsfelds. Teil III ist empirisch ausgerichtet und beschäftigt sich mit Flucht und Geflüchteten in Bezug auf Akteure und politische Handlungsmuster. In Teil IV werden schließlich Fluchtbewegungen und -politiken der Weltregionen in den Blick genommen. Das Handbuch richtet sich zugleich an Forschende und Lehrende, wie auch an Studierende und Interessierte aus der Praxis.

A peculiar aura of uncertainty and difficulty of knowing surrounds class, and especially its transmission from one generation to another. In this programmatic text we trace silences around the reproduction of class through our ethnographic research in Kenya, Egypt, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Palestine, and among migrant diasporas that link those countries with Somalia, Afghanistan, Western Europe, Russia, and the Arab Gulf states. We propose a comparative and nuanced attention to the ways in which concealment and silences - that is, ways of not displaying things or not speaking openly about them even while they may be known; secrets - that is, knowledge that is actively prevented from circulating; and ignorance - that is, ways of not knowing or not addressing something, together contribute to the reproduction of social status across generations. That reproduction, we argue, is in need of not being known or addressed because the moral and institutional claims and the public image that are inherent to status are frequently contradicted or complicated by the process in which the resources have been gathered, and by the ways in which they are passed on. The passing on of status from one generation to another therefore needs to be understood in a way that is not restricted to its discursive and performative dimension of explicit markers and accomplishments. Marks of distinction, accomplishment of status - and also stigmas of discrimination and stories of failure - are likely to consist equally of aspects that are concealed, forcibly kept secret, or not addressed. At the same time, every display and utterance that qualitatively or quantitatively values a person's or group's standing vis-à-vis others is likely to be enabled and accompanied by blind spots and silences. These can be best studied from the bottom up through a qualitative enquiry.

1. Introduction: Africa's Middle Classes in Critical Perspective; Tabea Scharrer, David O'Kane and Lena Kroeker -- Section 1: Rethinking Concepts of Middle Classes in Africa -- 2. Turning the Poor into Something More Inspiring: The Creation of the African Middle Class Controversy; Dominique Darbon -- 3. The Narrative of 'the African Middle Class' and its Conceptual Limitations; Dieter Neubert and Florian Stoll -- 4. Anthropology and Class in Africa: Challenges of the Past and Present -- Section 2: The Recurring Rise and Return of Middle Classes in Africa; David O'Kane and Tabea Scharrer -- 5. The Ghanaian Middle Class, Social Stratification, and Long-Term Dynamics of Upward and Downward Mobility of Lawyers and Teachers; Jan Budniok and Andrea Noll -- 6. The Nubians of Kibera 'Revisited': Detribalized Natives, Slum Dwellers, Middle class?; Johanna Sarre -- 7. Saving and Serving the Nation: HIV Politics and the Emergence of New Professional Classes in Botswana; Astrid Bochow -- Section 3: The Political Consequences of the Middle Classes.-8. Propertied Citizenship in a Township and Suburb in Johannesburg; Barbara Heer -- 9. Thinking Sierra Leone and Building a New Middle Class: Political Expression and Political Values at the University of Makeni; David O'Kane -- 10. African Middle Classes: Formation and Destabilizing Effects -- Section 4: Formation of Social Interconnections and Interdependencies; Jason Musyoka -- 11. Pathways into the Middle: Rites of Passage and Emerging Middle Classes in Namibia; Julia Pauli -- 12. Middle Class Approaches to Social Security in Kenya; Lena Kroeker -- 13. Middle Classes and 'Moderate Prosperity' in Rural Madagascar; Tsiry Andrianampiarivo -- 14. Afterword. The (Idea of) African Middle Classes: Theorizing from Africa; Rachel Spronk