Introduction: Syrian Refugees – Facing Challenges, Making Choices
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Author | Ahmet İcduygu,Deniz S. Sert |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12563 |
Introduction: Syrian Refugees –Facing
Challenges, Making Choices
Ahmet
_
Icduygu* and Deniz S. Sert**
Analytically speaking, migration involves a series of decisions. Put differently, it requires facing a
range of altering circumstances and making choices –both for the migrants themselves, and for the
countries that find themselves impacted by migration. The contextual factors that underlie the various
types and patterns of (non-forced or forced) migration differ dramatically. Nevertheless, from the
perspective of the people who are doing the moving (especially across international borders), a com-
mon element is the decision to move itself –which is almost always taken after facing significant
(economic, social, political) challenges –plus decisions about where and how to move, and what to
do after moving (de Jong and Gardner, 1981; Carling and Collins, 2017). And for migrants or refu-
gees, once the post-migration stage is reached –typically at the end of a difficult journey that has
proceeded through many stages –decision-making remains central; in debates over settlement, inte-
gration, naturalization and potential re-migration or return. Decision-making is also the concluding
theme of receiving countries as they attempt to deal with the flows of migrants and/or refugees. The
policy-making process is replete with difficult choices, including how to respond to the various
claims of immigrants or refugees who enter, how long they might stay (i.e. permanently or temporar-
ily), what kind of work (if any) they may undertake, their impact on the welfare system or the ability
of migrants or refugees to “integrate”into thecommunities inwhich theylive (Rousseauet al.,
2002; Boswell et al., 2011). Needless to say, these decision-making and policy-making processes are
all the harder in the context of forced mass movement, compared to voluntary migration.
All these various aspects of “facing challenges and making choices”have been observed vividly
in the last 8 years in the case of the millions of Syrian refugees who have been displaced internally
or internationally. Since 2011, as many as a half of Syria’s 22 million inhabitants have been forced
to flee their homes, temporarily or permanently. Recent UN figures show that more than 6 million
are internally displaced within Syria, and there are around 5 million refugees outside the country
(UNHCR, 2018). The first wave of Syrian displacement came in April 2011, when hundreds died
in clashes between the Syrian Army and opposition forces as the conflict erupted. By the end of
2011, with the country descending into full-scale civil war, thousands had fled to neighbouring
countries, with even larger numbers displaced within Syria itself. Two years into the conflict, some
2.5 million Syrians had become refugees, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. By 2015, the
number of Syrian refugees in these three neighbouring countries had grown to nearly 4 million –
2.5 million in Turkey, nearly 1 million in Lebanon and half a million in Jordon –in addition to
another half million in other two countries in the region, Iraq and Egypt.
In 2015, with the conflict in its fifth year and with no resolution in sight, various secondary
movements, which are often seen as a “spillover effect”of mass refugee migration, were triggered.
Countries beyond Turkey, Lebanon, Jordon, Egypt and Iraq began to be affected, mainly through
the eastern Mediterranean corridor connecting the Middle East through Turkey and Greece to
* Koc University, Sarıyer/
_
Istanbul, Turkey
** Ozyegin University, C
ßekmek€
oy/
_
Istanbul, Turkey
doi: 10.1111/imig.12563
©2019 The Author
International Migration ©2019 IOM
International Migration Vol. 57 (2) 2019
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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