See also W: Outside the Arab World: Europe and 2015 – 2016 European Migrant Crisis.
- Mahi Binebine (1959-, Morocco) – Cannibales (1999, English trans. Welcome to Paradise, 2012). This novel focusses on the portrayal of migrants and the dichotomy of the ‘civilized’ and ‘savage’ in the European discourse, and describes the experiences of illegal migrants, the harraga, who try to cross the strait of Gibraltar on a small boat in the 1990s (reference). Through the narration of the main protagonist, Aziz, the reader learns the stories of a group of harraga waiting to be smuggled from Tangiers to Europe.
- Ḥassan Blāsim’s (1973-, Iraq) collection of short stories Majnūn Sāḥat al-Ḥuriyyah (2012, English trans. The Madman of Freedom Square, 2009) and al-Masīḥ al-ʿIrāqī (2013و English trans. The Iraqi Christ, 2013) include stories on human trafficking and forced migration to Europe.
An example is the short story ‘Saḥinat Birlīn’ (English trans. ‘Truck to Berlin’) in Majnūn Sāḥat al-Ḥuriyyah, which depicts a group of 35 Iraqi men being transported from Istanbul to Berlin through a Serbian forest, where the Turkish trafficker abandons the locked truck which is found only days later by the Serbian police who discovers their ravaged corpses (reference). Only one person survived, who leaps from the truck, turns into a wolf, and runs into the forest.
Another short story, translated to English as “Why Don’t You Write a Novel, Instead of Talking About All These Characters?” in the collection The Iraqi Christ looks at the clandestine crossing of a forest at the Romanian-Hungarian border.
- Haytham Ḥusayn (1978-, Syria) – Qad Lā Yabqā Aḥad: Aghāthā Krīstī… Tʿālī Aqulluki Kayfa ʿAīsh (2018, English trans. No One may Remain: Agatha Christie… Come, I’ll tell you How I Live, 2018). Based on several interviews with refugees and his own experiences, the author of this novel depicts many everyday details of refugee life in the United Kingdom: how they live between their current situation and memories, and their attempts to integrate (reference). The author documents his own journey with his family through writing ‘letters’ to the English novelist Agatha Christie, who herself lived in the author’s hometown Amoudah, and at that time wrote a chapter in het diary titled: ‘Come, tell me how you live’ (also in H: Philosophical heritage: British authors and philosophers).
- Tahir ben Jalloun (1944- , Morocco) – Partir (2006, English trans. Leaving Tangier, 2009). This novel is the story of a Moroccan brother and sister who leave their family and country to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain in search for a better life. But once they arrive in Spain, the fulfillment of their dreams comes with much pain and sacrifice. The brother, for example, unwillingly develops a relationship with older Spaniard man to survive. The novel reflects on the relationship and intercultural exchanges between Morocco and Spain (reference). It also depicts the stages and emotions a Moroccan refugee to Spain goes through, from the paper bureaucracy to homesickness, and from life in illegality to living legally in the margins of Spanish society (also in W: Outside the Arab world: Europe: Spain).
- Abū Bakr Ḥāmid Kahāl (?, Eritrea) – Tītāniyykāt Ifrīqiyyah (2008, English trans. African Titanics, 2014). This novel by the Eritrean author, whom for a long time lived in Libya before eventually moving into exile in Denmark, describes the journey many Africans make to Europe. Its protagonist is ʿAbdar, an Eritrean who embarks on a 15-day journey through the desert with a group of migrants, witnessing all different forms of despair and forming friendships with the other migrants whose stories are also told.
- Leyla Lalami (1968-, Morocco) – Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005). This is a collection of short stories written in English that depicts the experiences of several Moroccan youths who attempt to flee the deteriorating socio-economic and political circumstances in Morocco by illegally migrating to Europe (reference).
- Razān Naʿīm al-Mughrabī (1961-, Libya) – Nisāʾ al-Rīḥ (‘Women of the wind’, 2010). A Moroccan servant working in Tripoli seeks the help of a smuggler to reach Europe. But before embarking on her journey, she requests the help of the different women in her life (reference). The novel paints a grim picture of what horrors women go through in their attempt to migrate, and the economic and social conditions that pushed them to make the journey. The novel is based on real stories, as the author provided one of the migrating women with a tape recorder to document all the difficulties she went through to reach Italy.
- Ghādah al-Sammān’s (1942-, Syria) short story ‘al-Timsāḥ al-Maʿdinī’ (‘The metallic crocodile’) in the collection al-Qamar al-Murabbaʿ: Qiṣaṣ Gharāʾibiyyah (1994, English trans. The Square Moon: Supernatural Tales, 1998). A line of immigrants waits in front of the police station in Paris seeking residence permits. One of them is Sulaymān, A Lebanese whose memories of the war are still fresh, and another is Dungān, an African man with a hypnotizing gaze. The latter appears to the former as a guardian angel, especially when Sulaymān is harassed by two Lebanese women. Dungān himself is harassed by a female police officer, who in her lunch break is mysteriously run over by her own car. Al-Sammān describes in detail the humiliation and suffering which immigrants experience in exile (reference).
- Boulem Sansal (1949-, Algeria) – Harraga (2005, English trans. Harraga, 2015). Lamia is a 35-year-old Algerian pediatrician living by herself in Algiers after her younger brother Sofiane becomes a harraga, an African migrant who flees to Europe (reference). The novel describes her life, which revolves around receiving news from Sofiane and visits by the 17-year-old pregnant Chérifa who is supposedly sent by Sofiane. The novel the experience of those who migrate, such as the confrontation with the European migration control system, and the effect of their absence on those who remain in the home country (reference).
- Ṭāriq al-Ṭayyib (1959-, Egypt / Sudan) – Mudun bilā Nakhīl (1992, English trans. Cities without Palms, 2009). This novel is set around Ḥamza, a young man from a Sudanese village who sets out to find work, first in Egypt and then in Europe, to provide for his mother and sister. On his journey he encounters hunger, continued poverty, and the hard reality of migrant labourers and illegal immigrants in Europe.
- Nathīr al-Zuʿabī (?, Syria) – Yūrū (‘Euro’, 2016). Story of this novel is narrated by a Greek Euro and then by a young man who slowly turns into steel and joins the society of the Euro coins and other metal objects (reference) (also in 2015 – 2016 European Migrant Crisis).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Taïeb Berrada. 2019. “Migrant Necropolitics at the Table: ‘Civilized Cannibalism’ in Mahi Binebine’s ‘Cannibales’.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 21(6): 1-11, p. 3
- Khaled Al-Masri. 2018. “The Politics of Poetics of Madness in Ḥasan Blāsim’s ‘The Madman of Freedom Square’.” JAL 49(3): 271-295, p. 280-1
- Aljazeera. 2018. “‘Qad lā Yabqā Aḥad’ … Haytham Ḥusayn Yarwī Sirat al-Lujūʾ.” www.aljazeera.com, 3 May 2018, https://www.aljazeera.net/culture/2018/5/3/%D9%82%D8%AF-%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%82%D9%89-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%AF-%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AB%D9%85-%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9 (last accessed 8 February 2024)
- Nicoletta Pireddu. 2009. “A Moroccan Tale of an Outlandish Europe: Ben Jelloun’s Departures for a Double Exile.” Research in African Literatures 40(3): 12-36, p. 17-8
- Yoused Awad. 2015. “Food for Thought: Un/savory Socio-economic Im/mobility in Laila Lalami’s Secret Son.” MEL 18 (2): 109-121, p. 113
- Muḥammad Al-Masʿūd. 2010. “Mutakhattil al-Hijrāh wa al-Aʿīb al-Kitābah al-Riwāʾiyyah fī Riwāyat ‘Nisāʾ al-Rīḥ’ li-Razān Naʿīm al-Mughrabi.” www.alquds.co.uk, 6 September 2010, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%AE%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A/ (last accessed 9 February 2024)
- Fadia Suyoufie. 2009. “Magical Realism in Ghādah al-Sammān’s ‘The Square Moon’.” JAL 40: 182-207, p. 197-8
- Julie Lemoux. 2015. “Boualem Sansal, ‘Harraga’.” E-Migrinter 13, accessed through https://journals.openedition.org/e-migrinter/541 (last accessed 9 February 2024)
- Johanna Sellman. 2018. “A global postcolonial: Contemporary Arab(ic) literature of migration to Europe.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 54(6): 751-765, p. 761