Syrian Forced Migrants in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. A Changing Migration Regime in the Syrian Neighborhood

This contribution enquires into the conditions and policies that govern (im)-migration flows in Syria's neighbouring countries. Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have taken in approx. 5 million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the Syrian revolution and ensuing civil war; what is more, they are also hosting other refugee and migrant groups in significant numbers as well as experiencing considerable out-migration. With regard to Syrian forced migrants, all three countries followed an open-door-policy in the first phase of the Syrian conflict, assuming that the Syrian uprising would be equally short-lived as the precedents in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. With the refugee situation becoming increasingly protracted, however, and faced with a continuously underfinanced international humanitarian effort for Syrian refugees in the region, the migration regimes as well as integration policies evolved against the backdrop of both national and international dynamics. The paper will apply a historical, comparative lens to better understand how the national migration regimes have changed in the three states over time and how the respective approaches to migration flows interact with other national, regional and/or international policies of asylum/refuge.