Turkey now hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, more than 3.6 million of the 12.7 million displaced by the Syrian Civil War. Many of them are subject to an unpredictable temporary protection, forcing them to live under vulnerable and insecure conditions.

The Precarious Lives of Syrians examines the three dimensions of the architecture of precarity: Syrian migrants' legal status, the spaces in which they live and work, and their movements within and outside Turkey. The difficulties they face include restricted access to education and healthcare, struggles to secure employment, language barriers, identity-based discrimination, and unlawful deportations. Feyzi Baban, Suzan Ilcan, and Kim Rygiel show that Syrians confront their precarious conditions by engaging in cultural production and community-building activities, and by undertaking perilous journeys to Europe, allowing them to claim spaces and citizenship while asserting their rights to belong, to stay, and to escape. The authors draw on migration policies, legal and scholarly materials, and five years of extensive field research with local, national, and international humanitarian organizations, and with Syrians from all walks of life.

The Precarious Lives of Syrians offers a thoughtful and compelling analysis of migration precarity in our contemporary context.

A comprehensive study of the lives of Syrians and the precarious conditions they face under temporary protection in Turkey.

About the Author
Feyzi Baban is associate professor of international development studies and political studies at Trent University. Suzan Ilcan is professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Kim Rygiel is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Reviews

"Turkey hosts the largest refugee community in the world today and the Syrian refugee issue has far-reaching implications across that country. This book, with its succinct overview of Syrian refugees in that country and its vivid description of the socio-economic conditions of refugees in cities and host communities, is a welcome and long overdue effort." Cenk Saracoglu, Ankara University and author of Kurds of Modern Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism and Exclusion in Turkish Society

"[The Precarious Lives of Syrians] is distinguished in its presentation of an understanding of precarity that is different from the one in reference to industrial or post-Fordist capitalism in the West. Whereas the definition of precarity is usually limited to employment conditions, this book aims to provide a larger definition and show aspects of precarity namely inherent to migration. It does so by taking a perspective from the case of Turkey as a country that is currently developing its migration system with the arrival of a very important number of refugees. It thus constitutes a rich resource for students and scholars who are interested in delving into the topic of forced migration within the fields of social sciences, especially in the case of Turkey." International Migration

"A vital read - not only for those with an interest in the plight of Syrian refugees, but also for all those concerned about the 'death of asylum' as a concept and practice, and the 'discursive disappearance of the refugee' or erosion of the idea that people who seek asylum may be refugees. While the authors certainly document a bleak situation for many Syrians in Turkey, they also provide glimpses of strength of Syrians who continue to build their lives in the face of challenges, in solidarity with each other as well as with Turkish citizens." Journal of Refugee Studies

Book Information
ISBN 9780228008040
Author Feyzi Baban
Format Paperback
Page Count 296
Imprint McGill-Queen's University Press
Publisher McGill-Queen's University Press