Prof. Johara Berriane | Associated Researcher

Mobilities, Migrations, Reconfiguration of Spaces
Centre Marc Bloch, Friedrichstraße 191, D-10117 Berlin
Email: berriane  ( at )  cmb.hu-berlin.de Tel: +49(0) 30 / 20 93 70700

Home Institution : Universität der Bundeswehr München | Position : Professor | Disciplines : Anthropology , Afrikawissenschaften |

Biography

Johara Berriane is Professor at the Institute for Cultural Studies of the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich and affiliated researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch. She holds a Magister Artium from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Brsg. and a PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin. She was visiting research fellow at the International Migration Institute Oxford, postdoctoral researcher at the Chaire d’études africaines comparées of Rabat (EGE) and member of the International Research Group “The Bureaucratization of African Societies” of the German Historical Institute of Paris and the Centre de recherche sur les politiques sociales in Dakar.

Johara Berriane has been mainly working on the nexus of mobility, migration and religion in African cities. She is focusing on the effects of circulations and mobility on the production of religious spaces and on the role of religious institutions (Christian and Muslim) in the identification of migrants and the governance of their movements. 

This research project examines the role of faith-based institutions in the governance of African migration. It is based on the hypothesis that religious groups - like other non-state actors - play a part in managing the movement of migrants, by providing a framework for their followers in migration and facilitating migrants' access to rights, services and goods. 
Firstly, I look 'from the inside' at religious institutions and their role in providing a framework, a sense of belonging and a sense of commitment for the migrant faithful. I then look at the charitable role of these institutions, beyond the community of the faithful, and its effects on the identification and support of migrants. Finally, particular attention is paid to the production and use of bureaucratic documents, both in the processes of 'internal' institutionalisation and the making of the group, and in humanitarian work.
This project involves a multi-site field study in Christian and Muslim confessional spaces in Rabat (Morocco), Dakar (Senegal) and Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire). 

 

Publications

 

  • Books

Ahmad al-Tijânî de Fès : un sanctuaire soufi aux connexions transnationales, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2016. http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=49190  

Studierende aus dem subsaharischen Afrika in Marokko. Motive, Alltag und Zukunftspläne einer Bildungsmigration, Diskussionspapiere des Fachgebiets Volkswirtschaft des Vorderen Orients, Nr. 103. Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2009.http://www.klaus-schwarz-verlag.com/index.php? title=Johara+Berriane%3A+Studierende+aus+dem+subsaharischen+Afrika+in+Marokko&art_no=DKP103&language=de

  • Peer-reviewed articles

"Religion in Spaces of Transit: African Christian Migrant Churches and Transnational Mobility in Morocco". Journal of Intercultural Studies [published online Jun2020]. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07256868.2020.1778653?journalCode=cjis20 

„Transit, Einwanderung und Zirkulation. Geopolitische und sozioökonomische Faktoren der marokkanischen Migrationstransition“. Berliner Debatte Initial 28, Heft 4, 2017. https://shop.welttrends.de/e-journals/e-paper/2017-fl%C3%BCchtiges-europa/transit-einwanderung-und-zirkulation                                                                 

„Pilgrimage, spiritual tourism and the shaping of transnational ‘imagined communities’: the case of the Tidjani ziyara to Fez“, International Journal of Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism. Vol. 3, Issue 2, Article 4, 2015. https://arrow.dit.ie/ijrtp/vol3/iss2/4/ 

„Sub-Saharan students in Morocco: Determinants, everyday life and future plans of a high skilled migrant group”, Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 20, Issue 4, 2015.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13629387.2015.1065042    

„Intégration symbolique et ancrages sur l’ailleurs : les Africains subsahariens de Fès et leur rapport à la zaouïa d’Ahmad al-Tijânî”, L'Année du Maghreb, XI, 2014.https://journals.openedition.org/anneemaghreb/2277                                           

„La ziyâra des tijanes sénégalais vers Fès: les diverses facettes d'un pèlerinage transnational“, HESPERIS TAMUDA, Vol. XLVII, pp. 131-150, 2012.

  • Book chapters

"Religious Place-Making and African Mobilities. Muslim and Christian Moroccan Sites in Migrant Trajectories within and beyond the Continent" in: Meron Zeleke and Lahra Smith (eds.): African Perspectives on South–South Migration. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003368267, Routledge 2024. 

"Les Marocains en Afrique de l'Ouest en 2021. Destinations, profils et activités professionelles de communautés en mouvement" in: Fondation Hassan II des Marocains à l'étranger (ed.): Marocains de l'étranger 2021. Rabat, 2023. 

 

"Faith Papers. Transnational Mobility, Christian Networks, and Citizenship in Morocco and Senegal" 2021 in: Séverine Awenengo Dalberto und Richard Banégas (eds.): Identification and Citizenship in Africa Biometrics, the Documentary State and Bureaucratic Writings of the Self, Routlegde 2021.

“Conquering New Territory for Jesus?” The Transience and Local Presence of African Pentecostal Migrants in Morocco in: Birgit Meyer and Peter van der Veer (eds.): Refugees and Religion.Ethnographic Studies of Global Trajectories, 2021.
"Transnational Evangelical Spaces in Muslim Urban Settings: The Presence and Place-Making of African Christian Migrants in Morocco" in: Clart, Philip and Jones, Adam (eds.): Transnational Religious Spaces. Religious Organizations and Interactions in Africa, East Asia, and Beyond, De Gruyter, 2020. DOI:10.1515/9783110690101-202.  

"Les Marocains de l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Evolutions récentes d’une communauté en mouvement (Sénégal et Côte d’Ivoire)" in: Fondation Hassan II des Marocaisn résidents à l'étranger, "Marocains de l'extérieur - 2017", 2019. 

„The Moroccan ‘moment’: mobility and belonging in the transnational trajectories of sub-Saharan migrants“ in: Bakewell, Oliver und Landau, Loren (Hrsg.), Forging African societies. Mobility, Integration and Belonging. Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2018. https://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9781137581938#                                                                              

„When Senegalese Tidjanis meet in Fez: the political and economic dimensions of a transnational Sufi pilgrimage” in: Luig, Ute (Hrsg.), Approaching the Sacred: Processions and Pilgrimages in an historical and intercultural perspective. Berlin, Topoi Verlag, 2018.https://edition-topoi.org/articles/details/when-senegalese-tidjanis-meet-in-fez-the-political-and-economic-dimensions-                                                                                                                                           

„Circulation de marchandises et réseaux commerçants transnationaux: l’interrelation entre pèlerinage tijânî, commerce et migration vers Fès“, in: Bava, Sophie (Hrsg.), Dieu, les migrants et l'Afrique. Paris, l'Harmattan, 2018. 

„La formation des élites subsahariennes au Maroc“, in : Mokhefi, Mansouria und Antil, Alain (Hrsg.), Le Maghreb et son sud: vers des liens renouvelés, Paris, CNRS Éditions/IFRI, 2012.

„Ahmad al-Tijani and his neighbours: the inhabitants of Fez and their perceptions of the Zawiya“, in: Desplat, Patrick und Schulz, Dorothea (Hrsg.), Prayer in the City. Islam, Sacred Space and Urban Life, Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2012.

  • Other 

„Entre ancrage local et connexions transnationales : pratiques, représentations et enjeux autour de la zaouïa d’Ahmad al-Tijânî de Fès“, Etudes africaines comparées, 2, février 2016.

(mit Kristina Birke) „Marokko: Kein Land des Asyls?“ in: Felix Eikenberg und Friederike Stolleis (Hrsg.), Jenseits von Lampedusa. Migration und Flucht im Nahen Osten und Nordafrika. Internationale Politikanalyse. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, November 2015, p. 21-23. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/12088.pdf

„Les étudiants subsahariens au Maroc : des migrants parmi d’autres?“, Méditerranée. Revue géographique des pays méditerranéens, N° 113, 2009.

(mit Stephan Günter), Licht ins Dunkel. Studien über das Leben von Koranschülern im Sahel, Freiburg i. Br., Deutscher Caritasverband, 2010.

  • Blog posts

Les cartes de baptême dans le voyage de migrants rencontrés au Maroc, https://ihacrepos.hypotheses.org/237

Quand l’Etat certifie l’appartenance religieuse : retour sur la conversion à l’Islam au Maroc https://ihacrepos.hypotheses.org/766

The Mediating role of religious paper documents: first findings from research in Morocco and Senegal https://trafo.hypotheses.org/tag/johara-berriane