Refugee Survey Quarterly
Volume 37, Issue 1, 2018, Pages 96-115

The great escape? Converging refugee crises in tyre, lebanon (Article)

Knudsen A.J.*
  • a Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Norway

Abstract

This article analyses the convergence of two refugee crises, Palestine (1948-present) and Syria (2012-present), having brought old and new refugees into close, and sometimes, conflictual contact. While the former settled and gradually integrated with a view to return to Palestine, the new wave of self-settled refugees from Syria seek to migrate and resettle in Europe, having the means and opportunity to do so. Both staying and leaving involve processes of identity change from refugee to non-citizen resident and displaced (nāzihīn). Drawing on field material from Tyre (South Lebanon), the article compares the plight of Palestinian refugees with that of the displaced refugees from Syria who settled in Tyre's refugee camps and settlements and analyses where their trajectories intersect. For both groups, the only way to escape poverty, destitution, and discrimination is by emigrating, thus the article further contrasts escape and belonging as key features of refugee mobility and asylum migration. © Author(s) [2018]. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Forced migration Refugees Syria Camps Lebanon displacement

Index Keywords

national identity mobility refugee emigration Europe Palestine Liban Sud Syrian Arab Republic Tyre asylum seeker forced migration crisis management settlement pattern Lebanon

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85043456174&doi=10.1093%2frsq%2fhdx018&partnerID=40&md5=b760f0a7d32083127f2057a612277b82

DOI: 10.1093/rsq/hdx018
ISSN: 10204067
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English