Removal infrastructures for Syrians in Lebanon and Turkey
In partnership with the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University (Lebanon), the International Institute of Social Studies at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the Lebanese Centre for Human rights (CLDH). Funded by Gerda Henkel Foundation (2024-2026).
While three out of four refugees are hosted in low- or middle-income countries, European countries continue to externalize their protection responsibilities to neighbouring countries, such as Lebanon and Turkey, which face stark economic and political challenges. REMOVED is an ethnographic study of the spatial and temporal dimensions of the principle of non-refoulement in Lebanon and Turkey. This legal concept stipulates that no person can be sent back to a country where they risk being subjected to inhumane or degrading treatment.
The REMOVED research project empirically interrogates the principles of non-refoulement by approaching removal infrastructures as part of the multi-scalar entanglements of authorities, institutions and norms. Through interviews, observations and case studies, REMOVED generates empirical insights into removal practices and experiences in Lebanon and Turkey. Resisting binary distinctions between voluntary and forced returns, the project conceptualizes disparate mobility control practices, such as obliged returns, repatriations and (re-)entry controls, pushbacks, pullbacks, deportations, jointly as removals.
The study of removal infrastructures opens new theoretical horizons for the study of refugee returns and migration governance in three ways. First, the project examines removal practices beyond the mere implementation of laws and policies, highlighting thus the importance of non-legal norms. Second, the project examines the role of a broad range of frontline border workers, meaning all actors in positions of authority who are in direct contact with Syrians, highlighting thus also the roles played by non-state actors and mundane practices of control. Third, the project examines possible conflicts over spatial power, highlighting thus the emergence of new scales in migration governance.
Principal investigators:
Advisory Board Members:
- Roger Asfar (Editor in Chief and Researcher - Taadudiya platform.)
- Xiang Biao (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
- Jasmin Lilian Diab (Lebanese American University)
- Nefise Ela Gökalp-Aras (Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul)
- Nadia Hardman (personal capacity)
- Lea Müller-Funk (University for Continuing Education Krems)
- Maissam Nimer (Özyeğin University)
- Nicolas Puig (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development)
- Matthieu Rey (Institut français du Proche-Orient)
- Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek (Bonn International Center for Conflicts Studies)
- Stephanie Schwartz (London School of Economics and Political Science)
- Nora Stel (Radboud University)