Aspirations, Dreams and Future Horizons

The 2011 revolution in Syria was followed by unprecedented migratory waves in the region and in Europe. Labelled a ‘refugee crisis’ from 2015 onwards, it brought to European shores refugees of a defeated revolution. Yet, there is little explanation of the relation between migratory paths and revolutionary events. Connecting Syrian revolutionary and migratory aspirations for a good life, this project explores the understudied nexus between revolution and migration, examining the deep connections of both phenomena to dreams. My ongoing project ‘In Pursuit of a Good Life: Syrian Migratory Aspirations after the Defeated Revolution’ focuses on the role of revolutionary dreams, political imagination and religious spatiotemporal horizons in shaping migratory aspirations and paths. Conducting fieldwork among Syrian refugees in Europe (Germany and Sweden) and comparing this material with previously collected data in Turkey, I analyse migratory paths, aspirations and disillusions and their connections with Syrians’ revolutionary past, conceptions of legality and religious imagination. This opens up new subfields of anthropological enquiry and challenges existing analysis of refugees as bare victims.

© Charlotte Al-Khalili

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