Abstract
This chapter reflects on the narrative recollections of people on the move who have survived the current Syrian war, only to confront the challenges of forced displacement, relocation, loss and belonging. It draws on a series of in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with displaced people from Syria, who reflect on their experiences of remaking home in the West Midlands, UK, and London, Canada. Building on existing scholarship about homemaking and displacement through drawing insights from interviewees’ experiences of migratory journeys, the chapter explores the diverse temporalities and practices through which Syrians create home ‘away’ from home. It shows how remaking home involves a struggle to negotiate everyday experiences of loss and belonging, which are exacerbated by state policies and social conditions that create barriers and generate additional emotional and practical labour for resettled Syrians. The chapter argues that the problematic framing of home in conventional static terms across both contexts work against Syrians’ existing conceptions of home, generating mixed experiences of resettlement.
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Notes
- 1.
The research in the UK was carried out with funding from the British Academy Tackling the UK’s International Challenges Fund project IC3/100107, Lost and Found? A Digital Archive of Migration, Displacement and Resettlement, led by Yasmine Shamma with Suzan Ilcan and Vicki Squire. Vicki Squire led this research with the support of Doha Samir and Kalwinder Sandhu, to whom she would like to extend thanks. Thanks also are extended to the organisations who supported us to access research participants for this project, and to the research participants themselves. Please see Squire (2020) for a full analysis of the interviews in the UK.
- 2.
The research in Canada was carried out with funding from the British Academy Tackling the UK’s International Challenges Fund project IC3/100107, Lost and Found? A Digital Archive of Migration, Displacement and Resettlement, led by Yasmine Shamma with Vicki Squire and Suzan Ilcan. Suzan Ilcan led this research with the assistance of Violette Khammad, to whom she would like to extend her thanks. A special thank you to the Syrian interlocutors for their valuable time, insights, and knowledge. Ilcan’s analysis of all project interviews conducted in London and Windsor, Ontario, Canada appears in her 2021 project report, entitled, Experiences of Leaving Syria and Re-making Home in Ontario, Canada.
- 3.
As indicated in the introduction, we use pseudonyms throughout this chapter. We also do not distinguish between UK and Canadian based interviewees. For reference, interviewees in the UK include: Amira, Asmaa, Dina, Hassan, Houda, Menna, Nour, Saifeldeen, Salem, Yahia and Younis. Interviewees in Canada include: Fatima, Hallet, Hussein, Ibrahim, Iman, Jamal, Mahasen, Mamoun; Nabiha, Nairuz, Nemat, Safwan, and Wafa.
- 4.
Interviews in Canada were conducted prior to the COVID pandemic.
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Ilcan, S., Squire, V. (2022). Syrian Experiences of Remaking Home: Migratory Journeys, State Refugee Policies, and Negotiated Belonging. In: Shamma, Y., Ilcan, S., Squire, V., Underhill, H. (eds) Migration, Culture and Identity. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12085-5_7
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