Surviving the War in Syria : Survival Strategies in a Time of Conflict

Based on extensive fieldwork in Turkey, Jordan, Kenya, and the United States, with over two hundred interviews with Syrian refugees, this study examines how repertoires of survival strategies, including fighting, protesting, collaborating, hiding, and migration, are a critical framework for understanding civilian behaviour in conflict zones.

It is estimated that of Syria''s pre-war population, over half have been displaced from their homes, some having moved abroad and many remaining in the country despite the threats posed by civil war from Bashar Assad''s government, ISIS, foreign intervention, and a proliferation of rebel groups and militias. Despite this, migration is just one option out of a broad set of potential self-protection strategies available to civilians, with other strategies including fighting, protesting, collaborating, or hiding. In this study, Justin Schon emphasises that civilian behaviour in conflict zones includes repertoires of survival strategies, instead of migration alone. Providing a microanalysis of civilian self-protection strategies during armed conflict in Syria, Schon draws on ten months of fieldwork in Turkey, Jordan, Kenya, and the United States, with over two hundred structured interviews with Syrian refugees. Exploring how civilians select specific survival strategies, their motives and opportunities, he reveals questions which have the potential to guide new research on civil wars, and affect how we think about other survival strategies, from political, violent, to environmental threats.