University of Glasgow - Postgraduate research students

nabaz aziz

Research title: Middle Eastern Political Identity & Ideologies and Immigrant Integration in the UK: The Role of Transnational Identity Narratives

Research summary

My research examines how first-generation Middle Eastern immigrants in the UK make sense of political authority, belonging, and civic life, with a particular focus on Scotland as the empirical case. It explores how political ideas shaped by pre-migration experiences, political socialisation, and transnational Islamic discourses are interpreted alongside dominant civic narratives in Britain. Rather than assessing integration outcomes, the study focuses on how individuals navigate, reconcile, or distance themselves from competing political frameworks in their everyday understanding of participation and belonging. By adopting an interpretive approach, the project contributes to debates on political integration by highlighting meaning-making processes often overlooked in structural accounts of migration.

Supervisors

Grants

Self-funded

Additional information

I have over five years of experience working within Scotland’s third sector organisations, supporting refugees, asylum seekers, and newly arrived communities. My professional background includes fieldwork and casework with Community InfoSource, where I deliver practical support, community workshops, and awareness initiatives focused on integration, housing, and social inclusion.

Before beginning my PhD, I completed an MSc in The Middle East in Global Politics at the University of Edinburgh, a degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Strathclyde, and a BA in Geography at Soran University in Iraq, with a focus on political geography and regional dynamics in the Middle East. Alongside my academic training, I have professional experience in journalism and community engagement. These combined experiences inform my commitment to research that connects academic analysis with policy, practice, and lived experience, particularly in debates on integration and belonging in the UK.

Selected Public Writing and Commentary

Public political commentary analysing post-conflict reconstruction and democratic futures in Syria.

Literary review examining themes of state power, crisis, and moral responsibility in contemporary fiction.

Literary analysis of resilience and minority experience, alongside community engagement with translated world literature.

Published in the Arrival edition of Scottish PEN’s PENning Magazine, this reflective essay explores the meaning of “arrival” in the context of migration and displacement through the metaphor of Sisyphus. The piece engages with themes of hope, freedom, and belonging, questioning whether arrival is ever a final state or an ongoing process for migrant writers.

https://hawlati.co/page_detail?smart-id=42294

https://hawlati.co/page_detail?smart-id=33726

https://hawlati.co/page_detail?smart-id=34880

https://www.awene.com/detail?article=130974

https://www.awene.com/article?no=25921&auther=2711

https://www.awene.com/article?no=19744&auther=2711

https://www.awene.com/article?no=19754&auther=2711