Elwood D. Carlson - Comparative Demography of the Syrian Diaspora: European and Middle Eastern Destinations

The book series European Studies of Population (ESPO) aims at disseminating population research with special relevance for Europe. The series is multidisciplinary in character and includes both formal demographic analyses, as well as studies of the social, economic and other determinants and impacts of population trends. International comparison is of prime interest to ESPO, and both contemporary and historical perspectives may be applied. ESPO is open to methodological work and theoretical studies, as well as to studies that focus on the social and policy implications of demographic trends. The series includes monographs and edited volumes.

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Barely a decade ago, the population of Syria stood at 21 milliona population similar to the state of Florida, or in between the population totals for Romania and Australia. In less than 10 years, this population has been fractured by a perfect storm of demographic, economic, political, ethnic, and sectarian forces. Today, about one-fourth of Syrias people have been scattered across other countries as refugees, asylum seekers, and self-settled migrants. Another one-fourth of them live as internally displaced persons inside the country, driven from their homes by violence and economic and political chaos. Syria furnishes one of the most terrible lessons in recent history about just how disrupted life can become in a country and how quickly it can happen.

Who are the six million or more Syrians who have fled the country? These pages provide a factual demographic portrait of the Syrian diaspora, now found for the most part in the neighboring states of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, but also including a sizeable minority who shelter in more distant destinations concentrated predominantly in Europe.

The very serious economic and social challenges thrown up by this sudden, dramatic population movement in the second decade of the new century are obvious to everyone around the world. Angry, vocal, even violent reactions against perceived danger from strangers sometimes erupt inside these Middle Eastern and European destinations. So far, the resolve of both neighboring host countries and those further afield in Europe has been equal to these challenges and continues to furnish a humanitarian example to the rest of the world.

One aim of this volume is to provide more detailed comparative information about the Syrian populations in a range of countries. We believe this information can provide a firmer foundation for making decisions about future population movements, about policies related directly to the current situation of these Syrians (and perhaps other groups), and about what we may have to look forward to as other kinds of natural and man-made crises threaten to displace other populations in the remaining decades of this century.

Chapters contributed by population experts provide demographic details about Syrian residents in each country, including age distributions, sex ratios, and information about education, marital status, and family living arrangements where available. We show the salience of families with young children in this exodus from Syria and highlight the concentration of these migrants in a few countries in particular as a result of both varying national policies toward refugees and the preferences of these Syrian exiles themselves. While there are demographic similarities in Syrian populations in different countries, we also document clear and systematic differences distinguishing the populations of Syrians in some countries from those in other places. Above all, we seek to reveal the variety of human faces behind this most dramatic and terrible demographic upheaval so far witnessed in the twenty-first century.

The volume begins with three chapters setting the stage for the Syrian population diaspora. We first review the state of our current understanding of the general phenomenon of displaced populations as a result of armed conflict and other organized state-level violence. Masek provides a baseline sketch of the population of Syria itself in 2009, a year or two before the whirlwind struck, giving us a reference point with which to compare observations about Syrian populations displaced to other countries. Kohlenberger, Buber-Ennser, Rengs, and Hosner then share knowledge gained in Austria about how to design and conduct detailed, intensive surveys of displaced populations in order to record the specific characteristics, the successes, and the needs of such groups.

The second section of the book includes chapters on the situation of the vast majority of Syrian refugees and other internationally displaced persons found in the adjacent countries of Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. There are Syrian refugees in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa as well, but nothing to compare with the massive populations found in these three contiguous states. Adali and Trkylmaz provide the demographic portrait of Syrians in Turkey, along with an added chapter by Dumon that concentrates on the special problems faced by Syrian women in Turkey. Sieverding and Caldern-Meja contribute the demographic portraits of Syrians now found in Lebanon and in Jordan.