Governing Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire

A truly remarkable achievement. Ella Fratantuono provides us with an impressive analysis of a subject generally understudied in the global literature of historical migration and skilfully demonstrates that mass migrations are not just the story of migrants. Within the imperial policies of demographic warfare, the migrants can be seen as victims as well as colonists, while for the governments, they were both a problem and an opportunity. This work will be a must read for students of the late Ottoman Empire. -- Fuat Dündar, TOBB University of Economics and Technology
Managing the growing number of refugees, immigrants, and nomadic tribes was one of the key problems that faced the Ottoman state in the nineteenth century. In this well-researched and well-written book, Fratantuono shows that in setting up one of the earliest refugee regimes in the world and managing the changing composition of the empire by creating planned settlements, the Ottomans tried to deal with this challenge systematically during most of the nineteenth century. Even though their policies were repeatedly thwarted by forces that were beyond their control, some of the institutions and practices that emerged in those years survived and determined the shape of the modern Turkish state and its national ideology. In explaining a hitherto unexamined aspect of state formation in the nineteenth century, this book significantly enriches our understanding of the final century of the Ottoman Empire. -- Resat Kasaba, University of Washington
With her impressive linguistic abilities [Ella Fratantuono] has exploited well the Turkish archives to produce an important scholarly work that contributes to the rehabilitation of the late Ottoman Empire. -- A. J. Papalas, emeritus, East Carolina University * CHOICE *
Fratantuono’s Governing Migration [in the Late Ottoman Empire] is an important original work and an essential read for scholars and students of Ottoman history. Further, it will be of interest to those who study mobility, migration, and state-building not only in the Ottoman Empire but also in other geographic and historical contexts. -- Milena B. Methodieva, American Historical Review