“Why should you go back when you have everything here”, says Europe’s most famous Syrian migrant as publishers across continent heap on column inches for the case against refugees from the now-deposed Bashar al-Assad going home.
The so-called ‘Prime Minister’ proclaimed to the world by the National Salvation Government-turned-Syrian Transitional Government Mohammed al-Bashir has called on Syrians abroad to come home and help rebuild the country, but if the picture painted by the legacy European press is anything to go by, they’d rather stay where they are.
Installed by Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani as the acceptable face of the new regime, al-Bashir gave his first interview to a Western media outlet this week and explained his priorities. Amid restoring stability, security, power, water, and food in the country, al-Jolani said he was focussed on persuading the millions of Syrians abroad to come home.
He told Italy’s Corriere della Sera he wants to “bring back the millions of Syrian refugees who are scattered around the world. Their human capital and experience will help restart the country. My appeal goes out to all Syrians abroad: Syria is now a free country that has regained its pride and dignity. Come back. We need to rebuild, to get our country on its feet again, and we need everyone’s help”.
A big claim, certainly. Nevertheless, the attitude in many European capitals is the al-Assad family being deposed in Syria means the situation for the four million Syrian refugees living in the European Union has now changed. Indeed, as reported, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Finland and Norway have all now suspended new refugee applications from Syrians as the Assad threat no longer exists.
In Germany, the likely next chancellor has already spoken of the government chartering return jets with free seats for any Syrian to take, and cash incentives to persuade them to go.
But even in the face of an expectation that, as refugees, they might be expected to return to Syria to rebuild their homeland, many appear uninterested in leaving what they profess to consider their comfortable new homes. Indeed, broadcasters and publishers across Europe rushed to publish sympathetic pieces profiling reluctant Syrians in the hours and days since Assad fled for Russia, appearing to lay groundwork for a new narrative around why, actually, Syrians can’t be pressured go home.
Britain’s The Guardian is typical of this emerging genre, citing Syrians who have now been granted German citizenship — there are more Syrians in Germany than any other European state — and have no interest in leaving now they’ve arrived. One named migrant is described thus:
Alali and her husband, Amin, have been “constantly talking to each other about the one big question: do we go back or not?”, she said… After the astonishing events of the past few days, she has come to a conclusion: “I will not take my children to Syria until I really know the situation is a lot better.”
The Daily Telegraph quotes UK-based Syrian refugees — of whom there are around 27,000 — who told the paper things are too good in their new home to give up, and in any case it is possible the new Syrian government will turn out to be as bad as the old one. They said: “after seven years of living in the UK, I don’t think I will go back… Some of those now in charge of Syria were members of al-Qaeda just a few years ago. I don’t think Syria is safe now, in a few months and possibly not even in a year.”
For others, even as European nations have suspended refugee claims from Syrians, it is still worth trying to get into Britain rather than go home. Agence France Presse found Syrians in migrant camps waiting to cross the English Channel by smuggler boat — which is very dangerous — to try and force their way into the United Kingdom. One hopeful told the wires service: “It’s very bad news, but it won’t stop us. We want to continue to go to England because we’re looking for peace”, while another laid out the basically economic reasons for their migration: “in Britain, we can offer ourselves and our children a future. There is work, there is peace, there is everything we need”.
Germany’s Die Welt reported what may be the defining remarks from a Syrian refugee on the matter, given they came from the man who may be the most famous Syrian in Europe of them all, Anas Modamani.
Modamani’s face was broadcast around the world after him taking a selfie with then German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the defining image of the 2015-16 Europe Migrant Crisis, and he has since become something of a go-to man for the German media when looking for comment on migration matters. His words this week buttress the essentially dismissive posture that is portrayed as being the position of many, when he said there was no point in going back to Syria.
Welt outlined the situation:
The 27-year-old himself does not want to go back to Syria, he said. He now works as a freelance cameraman, has studied business communication, married a Ukrainian woman and lives with her. He has had German citizenship for two years and does not have to fear deportation.
For his own part, Modamani said of his attitude to the future: “Why should you go back when you have everything here?… In Syria I no longer have a home, a job or friends. I will only fly to Syria for holidays and to visit family – probably next year when the airport is open again.”
These stories underline the new truth of refugee status awards in European states, the rules for which were forged in European conflicts now long passed and created with those who keenly wanted to go home and rebuild in mind. The classic example to many are the quarter-million refugees welcomed in Britain with open arms during the chaos of the First World War but then, with scant exception, all went home when the war ended.
Evidently in many cases, refugees could hardly be said to be seeking refuge at all — with its implied transience — but rather permanent resettlement somewhere more to their liking. This is not unique to Syrians, of course, and surveys of fellow Europeans to their German hosts in the shape of Ukrainian refugees also show a strong preferences to never return. Speaking to this new normal of what being a refugee means is German academic and migration researcher Jochen Oltmer, quoted by Welt as saying a similar situation emerged after the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s.
“A large wave of Syrians returning from Germany to their homeland is unlikely,” he said, stating: “All experience shows that refugees develop many bonds in the community where they arrive… Return programs often overlook this rootedness in the new society”. Of Yugoslavia, Oltmer explained that by 1999, “only 17,000 of the 350,000 people seeking protection had returned to their original place of residence.”
That laws and norms governing refugee status has failed to keep up with the modern world may well become more apparent as the coming months as the extent to which Syrian refugees find new reasons to remain away their from post-Assad homelands.