We, the Refugees
THE FUTURE OF SYRIA PROJECT

Vision and Purpose

Refugee voices and perspectives must be at the core of peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction. It is not just a matter of restorative justice: sustainable solutions can only start with listening to those that are meant to have a substantial role in rebuilding their country, although in exile. This requires a complete overhaul of current top-down approaches to peace negotiations. The neglected fact is that peace is necessarily fragile if refugees are excluded.

Peace negotiations between adversarial leaders (be they mediated or not) tend to impose a certain framing narrative on those experiencing the conflict, which hardly generates genuine reconciliation. Bottom-up approaches, on the other hand, create conditions for sustainable peace. Moreover, the determination of refugees to be involved in peacebuilding to a great extent depends on how early, and how deeply, their narratives concerning harm, loss and recovery are incorporated into the peace process.

The question is how to do it, considering that refugee voices are as diverse as those of any other human group. mediatEUr’s The Future of Syria Project contributes to make sustainable peace possible in Syria by giving voice to Syrian refugees in the Middle East and beyond. The project supports refugee communities to identify and discuss their own concerns as they look forward to their future, including prospects for reconciliation and conditions to return.

The project’s ultimate goal is that refugee voices and perspectives are transferred directly and effectively to peace negotiation tables, peacebuilding processes, and international planning and delivery mechanisms.

Scope and Results

The Future of Syria Project produces a series of maps displaying the synergies and interplay between issues and needs of refugees and conditions in the field that enable or represent obstacles to repatriation and sustainable peace. Geographical and dialogue maps are elaborated on the basis of gender-balanced, structured discussions (focus groups and one-to-one interviews in different countries and locations) with refugees representing different socioeconomic backgrounds. Elements constituting a shared vision for the future are underlined in the visual maps, with a view to create a common framework for a solution to the conflict that fully incorporates refugees’ concerns and demands.


Peacelogs

The Future of Syria Project is supported by mediatEUr’s Peacelogs software, which allows for comprehensive mapping of refugee voices and perspectives.

Peacelogs is currently being refined to better capture the diversity of those voices, as well as voices of local communities affected by conflict, in order to become a powerful “digital diplomacy” tool.

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mediatEUr’s vision in this regard is that Peacelogs can be utilized by local communities and local facilitators themselves, thus multiplying the capacity of those affected by the conflict to have their voices heard in peace negotiations and peacebuilding processes.

The Future of Syria Project also aims to facilitate direct contact between refugee representatives and senior representatives of parties to the conflict, governments involved in Syria, and the international community. The combination of digital diplomacy tools capturing refugee voices and direct participation of refugees in negotiating tables can help transform realities on the ground by inspiring inclusive conflict resolution and international action.

Refugees’ Key Messages

Visual maps capturing refugee voices and perspectives provide a vivid and comprehensive account of focus groups discussions, which are only roughly summarized in this section.

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There are, though, limitations to any documentation process. Intense emotions and grief expressed by refugees during focus group meetings and interviews cannot be reflected in any document; and should only very carefully be documented. Refugees’ suffering must be honored and respected also by restraining graphic documentation, as it is their desire, but need be evocated as their messages are transferred to those in the international community who take decisions affecting their lives.

Profound pain and sadness, memories of death and dreadful violence on family and neighbors, vivid fear of death, images of destruction, continuing distress and remaining wounds, lack of hope for the future of their country, and uncertainty and fear about their own future after 8 endless years of war, desperation and trauma… Refugees often burst into silent tears as they remembered the horrors of war and are invaded by an immense nostalgia for the past: “Syria was a paradise before it all started”.

Syrian Refugees in Jordan
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS IN JORDAN - MAIN FACTS

• Dates: 24-28 February 2019

• FGD’s locations: Amman, the northern governorate of Mafraq, and the Zaatari Camp. Of the approximately 80% of Syrian refugees in Jordan who do not live in a refugee camp, 30% live in Amman and 25% in Mafraq. More than 70,000 refugees live in the Zaatari Camp.

• FGD’s composition: Aprox. 120 refugees participated in 8 focus group discussions (FGD) of women, men and youth (20 and below), as well as one-to-one interviews. Out-of-camp FGD gathered 12 people each, with a wrap-up session in which all groups were represented. The FGD in the Zaatari Camp was the most numerous one, with some 50 participants.

• Participants’ origin: Most participants were originally from Syria’s neighboring regions to Jordan, mainly Homs and Der’aa, but also the Damascus suburbs.

• Participants’ profile: The majority of men left education early and worked as farmers, builders, butchers... but most of them do not currently work in Jordan, or only informally, and many of them have medical disabilities. Women, with very few exceptions, are housewives, with some of them developing volunteer work. Many of the youth discontinued education since coming to Jordan, with only some 25% of mainly males that study and/or work in the informal sector, and some of the females been married at an early age. The team also conducted one-to-one interviews with Syrians liberal professionals and businessmen belonging to the upper-middle class who are settled in Jordan due to the conflict but not necessarily claimed refugee status.

• Prompts: FGD open-ended questions sought participants’ input on issues such as their current feelings towards the conflict, reasons for not returning to Syria, the type of future they see for Syria, and the type of future they see for themselves were they able to return to Syria and participate in rebuilding their country, or in case return is not possible.

Current situation in Syria

• The overwhelming majority of participants stressed the lack of safety and security as an ongoing obstacle preventing their return. They expressed fear of being targeted by Syria’s various manifestations of the security apparatus and referred many cases in which their relatives or friends were arrested and suffered severe consequences upon return. It was referred as well that Sunni who stayed or come back are being forced to become Shia against their beliefs.

• All young male participants will not return also due conscription, which now entails 5 to 6 years of service and even affects people in their 30s. An adult man said “We will never give our sons to Assad”.

• The general feeling is that the regime’s surveillance system controls everything and it is also out of control, since soldiers take arbitrary decisions about anyone’s lives even at checkpoints. Although some acknowledge that the situation seems to be improving in Damascus according to social media videos, others reject it: “Do not believe the regime’s fake news”. A couple of young male participants, one of whom had recently been in Damascus, were rather confident about the security situation in Syria, although they considered the cost of life as a major impediment to return.

Future as refugees

• In case return is not possible, over half of participants expressed interest in seeking refuge abroad, usually in Europe or Canada, since education for their children would be more suitable and housing rent more manageable. In a few cases, women expressed a yearning to reunite with their children granted refuge in third countries.

• Those that would stay in Jordan or the neighborhood mentioned the importance of either being in a country bordering Syria or living in an Arab/Muslim country. Men often referred, however, to the difficulty of finding employment in Jordan, where they are exploited due to their lack of work and property rights, as well as health conditions that have degenerated due to stress since taking refuge. Even one interviewee from the upper class said: “There is no future for me and my children in Jordan. My car and my shops are under a Jordanian friend’s name. I work 14 hours a day and have nothing”.

• Families are often divided about different alternatives for the future, with male adults more keen to stay in general, and the youth more open to travel to other countries. The minority of young participants who study in Jordan are well integrated in the country thus in some cases not willing to go back to Syria even if return was possible. In spite of problems encountered, gratitude towards Jordan was expressed by all participants.

Conditions to Return

• The overwhelming majority of participants in the FGD stressed regime change as a precondition for return. Their willingness to return was clearly and strongly made dependent on Assad and its entourage, as well as Russia and Iran, leaving Syria.

• In contrast, those interviewees from the upper-middle class would be prepared to return if the government provides adequate safety guarantees.

• Ordinary refugees seem not to believe in the possibility of “regime change behavior”, or rather they are not able to even imagine themselves in Syria while Assad is in power, whereas those from the upper-middle class seem already convinced that Assad will not step out. The latter are either seeking to acquire another nationality or open to return as soon as the regime offers guarantees. As one interviewee pointed out, “the question for me is actually not whether we will retaliate against the Alawites, but whether they will accept us back in Syria… I would return now”.

Reconciliation conditions

• Reconciliation is seen as not difficult in Syria provided Assad leaves: “Syrian people and peaceful people who know how to live together regardless sects and religions”. Refugees consider themselves active, creative and strong people. Most participants are convinced that going back to their home communities would not generate tensions or problems, at least not with those that did not have direct responsibilities in the persecutions: “After 8 years of war, it is not more war what we want… We only want to live together as we did before the war”.

• All participants lamented the destruction of property and the irregular wartime provision of services such as electricity and gas: “There is no Syria to go back to”. They also referred to the need of their properties, houses and land, being restored. Several women referred to the need to put all weapons out and force the foreign militias to leave the country.

• Others, men and women, mentioned the need of releasing all prisoners and decreeing a general amnesty.

• A few participants said that Alawites and Kurds should go back to their places of origin and leave the cities they are occupying now. One young male showed a sentiment of revenge: “If they do not give our properties back, we will chase them as they chased us”.

Dreamed Syria

• If the regime is dismantled, participants spoke of transferring to Syrian much of the social and professional experience they acquired in Jordan. Some mentioned benefitting from Jordan’s heightened social awareness on matters of religion, personal growth, and family management that would serve them well in post-conflict Syria. A woman said: “The new generations have to understand there are other models possible and learn about human rights that were denied to our generation”.

• Those youth who wanted to return to a post-conflict Syria tended to be more ambitious than the adults in the roles they envisioned for themselves in reconstruction. Some notable examples were youth who mentioned wanting to work in human rights advocacy, medicine, and diplomacy. Adults often referred to the need of resources to rebuild their houses, which they cannot get in their current situation in Jordan. According to some of them, rebuilding the country will take years even if conditions are conducive.

• A woman expressed a common wish: “We want a new constitution that guarantees non-discrimination for all Syrians and all human rights we were denied. We want a government representing the majority that should not be in power for more than 4 years”.