Memory beyond trauma. Memory construction and identity renegotiation for Syrian migrants in Belgium since the 70s

Since 2011 Syrian migration has been studied through the ongoing conflict, where the exile of 6 million refugees turned out to be the major life event for collective memory. The civil war has not only become a new topic on the scientific agenda. It also acts as a lens through which Syrian memories are reconstructed, particularly the trajectories, the use of violence and persecution experienced by migrants. On the contrary, the memory of Syrian migrants before the 2011 conflict is a theme that is not yet sufficiently explored in contemporary research. This prevents us from taking into consideration not only different trajectories and experiences of migration, but a longer term past by including other memories in our reflection. Starting from this assumption, this contribution deals with a longer-lasting Syrian migration in Belgium and it aims at questioning how Syrian memories are built beyond trauma. Syrian migration to Belgium started in the ‘70s. This community includes - among others - students who chose to continue their career in Belgium, entrepreneurs who built their business, or Christian Syrians who fled certain reforms of the Syrian regime, until the refugees of the last waves who escaped the ongoing civil war. Through in-depth biographical and semi-directive interviews with Syrians having migrated before 2011, I specifically focus on the construction of events and personal trajectories, what is considered legitimate to tell and on what experiences are recognised as evocative to be remembered. In particular, the research shows the complexity of thinking about one’s own trajectories beyond the analytical frames used for the last refugee flows; in this sense, the relationship between identity and migration has often been schematically expressed as opposition between "pro-regime" and "against regime” positions, reducing the way of thinking of oneself beyond this dichotomic approach as well as beyond the traumatic perspective of the ongoing conflict and political crisis. By analysing some field outcomes, this contribution has a double perspective: at first, it aims at exploring memories of Syrian migrants who are not sufficiently studied in migration literature, nor present in Syrian collective memory. Secondly, these ordinary memoires “beyond trauma” suggest to analytically understand Syrian political identity renegotiation after 2011. To conclude, this contribution aims at understanding and then empirically describing how memories are constructed, what constitutes “memory” for Syrian migrants before 2011 and how their memory is articulated with the experience of post-conflict migrants.