Practices of exclusion,narratives of inclusion: Violence,population movements and identity politics in post-2014 northern Iraq

Abstract

This article examines the practices and narratives of inclusion and exclusion in Iraq in relation to ethnic and religious minorities displaced by the Islamic State and the resulting war. Examining the displacement in Iraq through the lens of citizenship, and utilising 29 in-depth qualitative interviews with internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, this article argues that displacement has been accompanied by practices and narratives meant to include internally displaced people in a particularistic articulation of belonging rather than to ensure a substantive participation as Iraqi or Kurdistan Region of Iraq citizens. Rhetoric of citizenship in Iraq changes between civic and ethnosectarian belonging based on conflict dynamics and the competition for power, whilst remaining ethnosectarian in reality. Thus, internally displaced people and their citizenship have become entangled in wider ethnosectarian competition in Iraq, and narratives and practices of citizenship change to fit the objectives of these wider actors, mainly Baghdad and Erbil, rather than being based on inclusiveness and civic identity.