Young Refugees and Forced Displacement: Navigating Everyday Life in Beirut

Young Refugees and Forced Displacement explores the complex realities of forced displacement experienced by young Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Beirut through focus groups, interviews, and arts-based methods. The project resulted in a public mural that reflected on the research process and the right to opacity for refugees. The book highlights the experiences of families, friendships, humanitarian caregiving, racism, discrimination, and everyday decencies and civilities within refugeedom, emphasizing the political alterity of the refugee condition. It appeals to policymakers, humanitarian organizations, social science scholars, and students interested in refugees, displacement, humanitarianism, intimacies, emotions, racism, and discrimination, as well as displaced youth.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 166 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Young Refugees and Forced Displacement delves into the intricate experiences of young Syrian and Iraqi refugees navigating the challenging realities of forced displacement in Beirut. This project, funded by the British Academy and spanning two years, involved 51 displaced youths aged 8 to 17, under the care of three local humanitarian organizations. Through focus groups, interviews, and innovative arts-based methods, the researchers sought to understand the daily lives of these young individuals.

The project culminated in the creation of a public mural, which sparked unexpected epistemological and methodological reflections on researching refugees and the right to opacity. The experiences of these young refugees are shaped by a complex web of familial relationships, friendships, humanitarian caregiving, racism, discrimination, and everyday decencies and civilities. These encounters define the sharp edges and more inadvertent political aspects of refugeedom.

Refugeedom, as conceived in this book, encompasses the humanitarian condition but extends beyond it to become a human condition of political alterity. In navigating refugeedom, the young Syrians and Iraqis develop into sophisticated political and moral actors, employing emotional reflexivity to define the terms of their own forced displacement. This book holds significance for policymakers, humanitarian organizations, social science scholars, and students engaged in the study of refugees, displacement, humanitarianism, intimacies, emotions, racism, and discrimination. It may also resonate with displaced youth who can find solace and understanding in the narratives shared within its pages.

Weight: 330g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367696146