The Syrian civil war (2011–2024) created the world’s largest refugee crisis, as over 14 million Syrians fled their homes. Syria’s neighbouring states took in most of those refugees. At its highest point, Turkey hosted over 3.5 million Syrian refugees and Lebanon hosted approximately 1.5 million. The combined effects of hosting massive number of refugees, European externalization of refugee policy, and persistent challenges of repatriation have made the Middle East the region of the world which hosts the largest, longstanding refugee populations. Many of these major host states are also fragile states. The Syrian conflict, and the refugee crisis resulting from it, has had negative effects on regional states’ economy, security, as well as their political and social fabric. At the same time these states have been able to use the refugee crisis for their benefit in relation to European donor states and the EU, both in terms of securing aid but also obtaining political benefits. Thus, our research asks how new regional and global realities have changed the bargaining power of host states vis-á-vis external actors such as the EU.
To understand the complex dynamic which develops in contexts where fragile states host large, longstanding refugee populations, we compare two selected countries: Lebanon and Turkey. Our host-state oriented focus will complement existing studies with a refugee-centric perspective, allowing us to examine how refugee flows impact fragile states and are, in turn, instrumentalized by them. In sum, through these two cases we will better understand the interactions between the host state, the refugees, and the international community.
This project is a collaboration with the American University in Beirut.
