This paper explores the employment integration of Syrian refugees in the Swedish labor market, focusing on Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. As the largest migrant group in Sweden, Syrians face significant challenges in labor market integration. Understanding the key factors influencing their employment is crucial. By utilizing existing quantitative survey data collected from Syrian refugees in these cities, the study seeks to understand what key factors influence their employment levels. The study’s findings demonstrate that education and language proficiency often correlate with higher employment levels. Regional context also plays a role, with geographic location affecting employment prospects. Moreover, subjective discriminatory experiences are shown to negatively impact employment outcomes, highlighting the need for inclusive practices. Gender disparities are evident, with males consistently demonstrating higher employment levels than females, posing questions on gender roles. This research highlights avenues for improving the employment integration of Syrian refugees.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how a Breitbart News Network text represented Muslim and Syrian refugees in the weeks leading up to the 2016 United States presidential election. Using a methodological framework based on Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis, the analysis seeks to reveal the linguistic semiotic choices made by the text producer in the representation of Muslim and Syrian refugees and to explain how these semiotic choices were used to achieve their effect. By revealing these linguistic semiotic choices, the beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies that are present in the text─ but not necessarily easily seen─ can be brought out into the open. Once out in the open, they can be critically questioned, contested,  and they can be examined to find out how their beliefs, attitudes, and ideologies can be understood to have destructive consequences on the audience and the groups of people they represent.

Diese Dissertation untersucht die Auswirkungen der Vertreibung auf die Geschlechterrollen und -beziehungen bei syrischen Flüchtlingsfamilien im Libanon und in Deutschland. Sie basiert auf einer achtzehnmonatigen ethnografischen Feldforschung, die zwischen 2017 und 2019 durchgeführt wurde. Die wichtigsten Fragestellungen, die diese Studie geleitet haben, sind wie folgt: Welche Art von Geschlechterrollen- und Beziehungstransformationen erleben syrische Familien im Libanon und in Deutschland? Wie verhandeln syrische Männer und Frauen Beziehungen in der Vertreibung neu? Können unterschiedliche Fluchtsituationen ähnliche Erfahrungen erzeugen? Es wird die These aufgestellt, dass syrische Familien aufgrund der besonderen rechtlichen und bürokratischen Bedingungen im Libanon und in Deutschland eine langwierig-vorübergehende Vertreibung erleben. Dieser Bereich wird als Liminalität konzipiert, einen nichtstrukturellen Kontext, der alternative Dimensionen der „Agency“ ermöglicht. Für jede Fallstudie werden vier Typologien von Transformationen in Geschlechterrollen und -beziehungen bestimmt und anschließend analysiert, wie syrische Männer und Frauen diese neu verhandelt haben. Abschließend werden beide Situationen des Flüchtlingsdaseins verglichen und vorgeschlagen, dass drei Dimensionen der Agency in diesem Schwellenbereich aufgedeckt werden können - eine iterative Dimension, in der die Agency in Richtung Vergangenheit positioniert ist; eine projektive Dimension, die die Agency auf die Zukunft ausrichtet und eine praktische Bewertungsdimension, in der situative Urteile unter konkreten Umständen in einen Kontext gesetzt werden. Diese Dissertation liefert drei Beiträge: Auf theoretischer Ebene verwendete sie die Agency als Linse zur Analyse der Geschlechterverhältnisse bei Zwangsmigration; auf methodischer Ebene verwendet sie eine relationale Perspektive, um verflochtene Beziehungszusammenstellungen zu untersuchen, und auf empirischer Ebene werden zwei Vertreibungssituationen vergleichend analysiert. / This thesis investigates the impact of displacement on gender roles and relationships among Syrian refugee families in Lebanon and Germany. It is based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2017 and 2019. The main research questions that have guided this study are: What kind of gender role and relationship transformations do Syrian families experience in Lebanon and Germany? How do Syrian men and women renegotiate relationships in displacement? Can different displacement situations generate similar experiences? I argue that due to the specific legal and bureaucratic conditions put in place by Lebanon and Germany, Syrian families experienced a protracted-temporary displacement. I conceptualize this space as liminality, a non-structural context that allows for alternative dimensions of agency to take place. For each case study, I identify four typologies of transformations in gender roles and relationships and I analyze how Syrian men and women renegotiated them. Finally, I compare the two refugeehood situations and I suggest that three dimensions of agency can be uncovered in this liminal space – an iterative dimension, where agency is positioned towards the past; a projective dimension, which orientates agency towards the future; and a practical evaluative dimension, in which situational judgments are contextualized within concrete circumstances. This thesis offers three main contributions: a theoretical one, by using agency as a lens to analyze gender relations in forced migration; a methodological one, with its relational perspective that explores interconnected sets of relationships; and an empirical one, based on the comparison of two displacement situations.

For a long time, the situation of refugees and asylum seekers has been a source of concern for EU Member states. While different European countries' policies and practices have received much scrutiny, the discourses they produce are less visible in academia. This study thus explores the policy decisions and laws behind the EU’s responses to the refugee crises of 2015 and 2022 by comparing Syrian refugees to Ukrainian refugees in order to understand the distinction in treatment. Through a postcolonial perspective, this study employs a Mediated Discourse Analysis that presents a mainly conventional discourse of refugees and asylum seekers in the context of policies and laws. The analysis found a strong influence of ‘Eurocentrism’ through exclusionary policies, implying a continued concept of 'othering' and the 'myth of differences' as the underlying reason for different asylum policies and laws affecting the right to seek asylum.

Refugees who have fled from the ongoing civil war in Syria that arrived in Germany often develop post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). The aim of this study was to determine health care services utilization (HCSU), health care costs and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of Syrian refugees with mild to moderate PTSS without current treatment in Germany. The study was based on the baseline sample of a randomized controlled trial of a self-help app for Syrian refugees with PTSS (n = 133). HCSU and HrQoL based on the EQ-5D-5L and its visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) were assessed with standardized interviews. Annual health care costs were calculated using extrapolated four-month HCSU and standardized unit costs. Associations between health care costs, HrQoL and PTSS severity were examined using generalized linear models. Overall, 85.0% of the sample utilized health care services within four months. The mean total annual health care costs were EUR 1920 per person. PTSS severity was not associated with health care costs. The EQ-5D-5L index score and the EQ-VAS score was 0.82 and 73.6, respectively. For Syrian refugees with higher PTSS severity, the EQ-5D-5L index score was lower (−0.17; p < 0.001). The HCSU and the resulting health care costs of Syrian refugees with mild to moderate PTSS without current treatment are low and those with a higher PTSS severity had a lower HrQoL.

Many Syrian refugees residing in Germany have been exposed to traumatizing events, while treatment options are scarce. Therefore, the self-help app “Sanadak” was developed to target post-traumatic stress in Syrian refugees. We aimed to inspect the recruitment and baseline characteristics of the participants in the trial, which is conducted to evaluate the app. Analyses were based on the recruitment sample (n = 170) and the trial sample (n = 133). Data were collected during structured face-to-face interviews in the Arabic language. Targeted outcomes included post-traumatic stress (primary; Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5/PDS-5) and depressive symptoms, anxiety, resilience, among others (secondary). Recruited individuals were M = 32.8 (SD = 11.2, range = 18–65) years old; 38.8% were women. The average PDS-5 score was 23.6 (SD = 13.2) regarding trauma exposure, which was most frequently related to experiencing military- or combat-related events (32.9%). Moreover, 46.5% had major depression and 51.8% showed low resilience. Anxiety was present in 40.6% of the trial participants. Psychological distress was high in Syrian refugees residing in Germany, enrolled in a trial targeting post-traumatic stress. This underlines the need for intervention. Our results provide important figures on the mental health of a not well-studied population group in Germany.

Abstract  In 2011, the war broke out in Syria, affecting a significant portion of the Syrian population. Many have been forced to flee the war in search of a safe and secure life. However, those who have left Syria have also left their loved ones behind and carry with them the traumas of war. The main purpose of this essay is to examine the challenges that Syrian refugees diagnosed with PTSD face when they arrive in Sweden. The essay is based on qualitative research methodology and semi-structured interviews with six Syrian refugees. The results of the essay identify the significance of war traumas for these refugees and their negative impact on their ability to integrate into Swedish society. The lack of access to specialized psychiatric care and communication barriers exacerbates the situation and emphasize the importance of a person-centered approach in healthcare. Gender differences are highlighted, where both men and women face unique challenges based on their cultural norms and experiences. Special emphasis is placed on the need for targeted interventions to address the needs of Syrian refugee women, who are at increased risk of gender-based violence and psychological distress.   The essay contributes to a better understanding of the specific challenges that Syrian refugees with PTSD face in Sweden and underscores the importance of designing adequate support and care programs to meet their needs.

Avec 80 millions de personnes déracinées à travers le monde, les espaces de refuge sont en train d’émerger comme les transformations urbaines les plus visibles des temps modernes. Ces espaces, dont la fonction première est d’abriter temporairement, servent souvent d’habitat pour les réfugiés pendant des décennies. Cependant, les États hôtes, majoritairement des pays en développement, persistent à accueillir les réfugiés selon des politiques à court-terme. Cet écart génère plusieurs tensions mais se manifeste explicitement dans la conception temporaire des espaces de refuge. Sur le plan théorique, alors que les migrations sont largement documentées, des connaissances limitées existent sur la reproduction de chez-soi. Les théories qui portent sur les espaces de refuge se concentrent surtout sur des enjeux géopolitiques et anthropologiques, négligeant l’espace en soi. Pauvres en nuances, elles classent ces espaces selon des conceptualisations dichotomiques souvent déconnectées du vécu des réfugiés. Cette recherche propose une nouvelle lecture des espaces de refuge à travers les lentilles du pouvoir, de la culture et de l’espace. Elle étudie l’appropriation de ces espaces en se basant sur l’exploration des pratiques sociales, économiques et politiques des réfugiés, de leurs interventions sur l’espace et du lien qu’ils développent avec leurs nouveaux environnements de vie. Elle révèle également l’influence des approches adoptées par la communauté internationale, les gouvernements d’accueil, les organismes humanitaires et les communautés hôtes. L’étude est qualitative exploratoire et adopte la méthode de l’étude de cas multiples. Cette approche permet d’acquérir une compréhension approfondie des perceptions des réfugiés des contextes sociopolitiques et économiques qui caractérisent leur vécu d’une part et de leurs représentations de l’espace d’autre part. Trois typologies d’habitat — deux habitations urbaines, deux campements informels et deux camps organisés — sont étudiées afin d’évaluer l’importance du type de l’espace par rapport à son appropriation. L’étude adopte l’ethnographie comme approche méthodologique complémentaire, dévoilant l’évolution des conditions de vie des réfugiés et la transformation de leurs espaces. Le cas à l’étude est celui des réfugiés syriens au Liban. Submergé par le nombre de réfugiés sur son territoire, le plus grand par nombre d’habitants au monde, le Liban exclut les réfugiés syriens des systèmes institutionnels, économiques et urbains dans le but de réduire leur accès au territoire, de limiter la durée de leur séjour et de prévenir la consolidation matérielle et immatérielle de leurs espaces. Toutefois, huit ans après, les stratégies adoptées par le gouvernement libanais se sont avérées infructueuses : le nombre des réfugiés syriens accueillis est sensiblement le même et leurs espaces se sont pour la plupart ghettoïsés. La thèse propose cinq résultats principaux : 1) l’enjeux central dans l’appropriation des espaces de refuge est un ensemble de géométries de pouvoirs politique, économique et social ; 2) la gouvernance faible de l’État d’accueil fragmente les systèmes traditionnels et permet l’émergence de structures de pouvoir informelles qui contrôlent les réfugiés et leurs espaces ; 3) l’exclusion des réfugiés exacerbe leur vulnérabilité et l’organise au profit de parties prenantes locales influentes. Elle réduit leurs chances d’émigrer et mène souvent à la ghettoïsation de leurs espaces ; 4) la typologie des espaces n’est pas centrale par rapport à leur appropriation ; 5) l’enracinement de l’identité dans le lieu d’origine est une idée basée sur des considérations politiques anti-migratoires. Les espaces de refuges évoluent, selon les opportunités et les défis dans le milieu d’accueil, suivant un continuum entre non-lieux temporaires et lieux de vie socioculturels. En transcendant leur marginalisation et leur homogénéisation, cette recherche dévoile la réalité intime des espaces de refuge. Elle montre que souvent, ils deviennent des chez-soi, lieux de vie quotidiens qui abritent des individus qui forment des groupes sociaux culturellement distincts et économiquement hiérarchisés. D’un point de vue théorique, elle montre que l’accueil des réfugiés est souvent basé sur l’hostipitalité, une hospitalité hostile qui vulnérabilise les réfugiés et facilite leur exploitation. Elle révèle que l’appropriation des espaces de refuge augmente proportionnellement avec l’inclusion institutionnelle et l’autonomisation socioéconomique des réfugiés, concourant à la reproductibilité rhizomique de leur identité individuelle et collective. D'un point de vue pratique, cette recherche démontre que, sous prétexte de raccourcir la durée de l’accueil des réfugiés, les politiques d’accueil sont en réalité adoptées dans l’intérêt économique et politique d’acteurs étatiques et privés. Dans le but d’atteindre une meilleure justice spatiale, elle recommande aux gouvernements d’accueil un changement de paradigme à travers l’adoption de stratégies plus inclusives à l’égard des réfugiés menant à leur autogestion et leur développement et d’approches adaptées à l’usage et à la durée de leurs espaces. / With 80 million people uprooted around the world, refuge spaces are coming to be the most visible urban transformations of modern times. These spaces, whose primary function is to shelter, often accommodate refugees for decades. Yet, host states, mostly developing countries, continue to host refugees without adopting comprehensive, long-term strategies for their integration, causing acute political, socio-economic, and humanitarian problems. The lack of a long-term solution is explicitly revealed by the conceptions of refugee spaces, often designed as temporary solutions. From a theoretical perspective, while social scientists and geographers have widely documented the geopolitical and anthropological aspects of forced migrations, they have neglected the concept of space appropriation and the production of place identity in refugee spaces. Indeed, their classification of space/place is often based on dichotomous conceptualizations and differs from refugees’ real-life experience. This research examines refugee spaces through the lenses of power, culture, and space. It provides new evidence on the appropriation of these spaces through refugees’ social, economic, and political practices, their interventions on space, and their perceptions of their new living environment. It also examines the impact of the strategies adopted by the international community, host governments, humanitarian organizations, and local communities. The research method is qualitative and exploratory; it is based on a multiple case study design. This methodological approach provides an in-depth understanding of refugees' perceptions on the socio-political environment undergirding displacement and on their representations of space. Three space typologies — urban dwellings, informal settlements, and organized camps — are studied with the purpose of assessing the relevance of the space-type in relation to its appropriation. The study uses ethnography as a complementary methodological approach, shedding light on the evolution of refugees’ living conditions over time and the transformation of their spaces from a cultural standpoint. It specifically focuses on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a country which hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. Overwhelmed by the number of refugees hosted, Lebanon excludes Syrian refugees from formal legal, economic, and urban systems, limiting their access to the territory, reducing the duration of their stay, and preventing the tangible and intangible consolidation of their living spaces. Yet, eight years later, the strategies adopted by the Lebanese government have proven unsuccessful: the number of Syrian refugees is roughly the same as at the beginning of the conflict and most of their spaces have been ghettoized. Results show that: 1) complex geometries of political, economic, and social powers determine the appropriation of refugee spaces; 2) weak state authority fragments traditional governance systems which leads to the emergence of informal power structures that control refugees and their spaces; 3) refugees’ exclusion exacerbates their vulnerability, while benefitting local stakeholders, subsequently reducing their chances of emigration and leading to the ghettoization of their living spaces; 4) the typology of spaces is not a major variable in relation to their appropriation; 5) the rooting of identity in the place of origin is an idea based on anti-migration political viewpoints; refugee spaces can evolve along a continuum between temporary non-places and socio-cultural places of life depending on the opportunities and challenges in the host context. Transcending the stigmatization, marginalization, and homogenization of refugee spaces, this research reveals the intimate reality of these spaces. It shows that they often become places of everyday life for refugees who form culturally dissimilar and economically hierarchical social groups. From a theoretical point of view, this research shows that hosting policies are often based on hostipitality, or a hostile form of hospitality which exacerbate refugees’ vulnerability and facilitates their exploitation. It shows that refugees’ appropriation and control of their living spaces increase proportionally with their legal inclusion and their socio-economic empowerment by the host state, inciting the rhizomic reproducibility of their individual and collective identity in their new habitat. From a practical point of view, the research shows that hosting policies adopted on the pretext of shortening the duration of refugees’ settlement are in fact in the interest of state and private actors. With the purpose of achieving spatial justice, the study recommends a change of paradigm in refugee policies with approaches that are more inclusive towards refugees leading to their self-management and their development, and adapted to the use and duration of their living spaces.

Au Québec, il est connu que l’insécurité alimentaire (IA) touche davantage les immigrants récents que la population québécoise en général, mais il n’existe pas de données spécifiques pour les réfugiés. Les réfugiés, contrairement aux autres immigrants, ont fui leur pays par crainte d’être persécutés et n’ont pas nécessairement choisi d’immigrer au Québec ni même au Canada. Nous savons que la situation vécue par les réfugiés est particulièrement difficile étant donné la nature permanente et forcée de leur migration, mais les facteurs affectant leur sécurité alimentaire, surtout pour ce qui est des aspects culturels, sont peu étudiés. Depuis 2015, plus de 60 000 réfugiés syriens ayant fui la guerre ont été réinstallés au Canada, dont près de 14 000 au Québec, faisant de cette vague le plus important accueil de réfugiés au Canada considérant le nombre d’individus et le court délai. Le but de cette étude est de comprendre comment les facteurs socio-économiques, géographiques et culturels affectent l’insécurité alimentaire des ménages de réfugiés syriens au Québec. Plus spécifiquement, les objectifs sont d’étudier les impacts du lieu de réinstallation, de la catégorie d’immigration et du statut social, entre autres, sur la sécurité alimentaire des réfugiés au Québec, en plus d’explorer les perceptions des informateurs clés et des réfugiés quant aux barrières et aux facteurs contribuant à leur sécurité alimentaire. Pour ce faire, des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été conduites auprès d’informateurs clés (n=9) et une enquête transversale comprenant des questionnaires sociodémographiques et de sécurité alimentaire (Module d’enquête de sécurité alimentaire des ménages, MESAM) a été effectuée auprès de réfugiés syriens réinstallés au Québec (n=49), en plus d’entrevues semi-dirigées chez certains participants (n=34). Les participants ont été recrutés par la méthode boule de neige. Au niveau de la partie qualitative, des analyses de contenu inductives ont été effectuées de façon distincte chez les deux populations à l’étude. Les résultats de l’enquête transversale montrent que 52% des réfugiés syriens de notre échantillon vivent en situation d’IA, ce qui est comparable aux taux obtenus chez d’autres populations de réfugiés au Canada ainsi qu’aux États-Unis et en Australie. À travers les 2 entrevues semi-dirigées, on constate qu’il est important de s’intéresser aux périodes prémigratoire et migratoire en plus de la période postmigratoire puisque ces expériences sont relayées de manière soutenue par les participants. Une fois au Canada, bien que la précarité financière soit l’élément le plus étudié de la vulnérabilité des ménages à l’IA, la qualité des aliments, ce qui inclut le goût de ceux-ci, ainsi que l’accès géographique à des aliments du Moyen-Orient sont des éléments qui ressortent fréquemment des entrevues et apparaissent comme étant des déterminants importants. En conclusion, plusieurs pistes ont été abordées pour expliquer la vulnérabilité à l’IA des réfugiés syriens réinstallés au Québec et cela montre l’importance, pour la prévention de l’insécurité alimentaire chez cette population, de se préoccuper non seulement de l’aspect financier, mais aussi de plusieurs autres aspects, dont ceux culturels. / Food insecurity (FI) is known to affect recent immigrants more than the general population of Quebec, but there are no specific data for refugees. Refugees, unlike other immigrants, fled their country for fear of persecution and did not necessarily choose to immigrate to Quebec or even to Canada. We know that the situation experienced by refugees is particularly difficult given the permanent and forced nature of their migration, but the factors affecting their food security, especially regarding cultural aspects, are little known. Since 2015, more than 60,000 Syrian refugees who fled the war have been resettled in Canada, including almost 14,000 in Quebec, making this wave the most important influx of refugees to Canada, given the number of individuals and the short delay. The purpose of this study is to understand how socio-economic, geographic and cultural factors affect the food security status of Syrian refugee households in Quebec. More specifically, the objectives are to study the impacts of the place of resettlement, the immigration category and social status, among others, on the food security of refugees resettled in Quebec, in addition to exploring the perceptions of key informants and refugees as to the barriers and factors contributing to their food security. To achieve this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants (n = 9) and a cross-sectional survey including socio-demographic and food security questionnaires (Household Food Security Survey Module, HFSSM) was conducted with Syrian refugees resettled in Quebec (n = 49), in addition to semi-structured interviews with some participants (n = 34). Participants were recruited by the snowball method. At the qualitative level, inductive content analyses were carried out separately for the two study populations. Results from the cross-sectional survey show that 52% of the Syrian refugees in our sample are food insecure, which is comparable to the numbers obtained in other refugee populations in Canada as well as in the United States and Australia. In the semi-structured interviews, we note that the pre migratory and migratory periods need to be considered in addition to the post migratory period, which is usually more studied. Once in Canada, although financial insecurity is the most studied element of household vulnerability to food 4 insecurity, the quality of food, which includes its taste, as well as geographic access to Middle-Eastern foods are items that frequently emerge from interviews and seem to be therefore appear to be important determinants. In conclusion, several ways have been explored to explain the vulnerability to food insecurity of Syrian refugees resettled in Quebec, and this shows the importance, for the food insecurity prevention in this population, of being concerned not only with the financial aspect, but also with several other aspects, including the cultural ones.

The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the international effects the Syrian Conflict has had to the global community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has declared this conflict to be the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Millions of Syrians have fled their home country to avoid unjust persecution and are looking to not only neighboring countries, but the European Union for assistance in resettlement. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, more than 220,000 people have been massacred, leaving fifty percent of the population in unrest due to home displacement. According to Amnesty International, apart from the twelve million Syrians who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, there are about four million refugees fleeing to countries such as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. These five countries are unable to maintain the capacity of refugees that are desperate to pour in from Syria. Further gulf countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have refused to offer any resettlement venues for these migrants. Therefore, a plethora of European Union countries have received many asylum applications over the course of four years. Germany and Sweden have pledged resettlement locations for these refugees however relying on these two countries is not enough. This paper provides a historical background of the civil war in Syria, along with what the United Nations has done thus far to end the conflict. It will also analyze similar refugee situations in other countries in the region and compare it that in Syria. Finally, it will provide possible solutions of how the Refugee Agency, Human Rights Council, and Security Council can operate as a whole to distinguish this horrifying hostility in the region.