Ambivalent Entanglements: Syrian Refugees’ Network Relations and (Im)mobilities in Protracted Displacement

AbstractPlace-based or territorially confined approaches in forced migration studies are well-suited to investigating how displaced people live and interact with others in certain localities and navigate their way through governance regimes of aid and asylum. They may, however, fail to capture the inherent multi-sitedness of many displaced people’s everyday lives and their translocal connections across the globe. This chapter presents the role of family- and kin-network figurations in mobilities for Syrian refugees in Jordan. As part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project ‘Transnational Figurations of Displacement’ (TRAFIG), the chapter asserts that a key prospect for getting out of protracted displacement is the role of figurations, including family- and kin-based networks. Inspired by figurational sociology, the chapter seeks to highlight how ambiguous and uncertain family and kin networks are experienced by Syrian refugees in these ‘translocal figurations of displacement’ and how they impact on their mobility. Utilising 23 interviews – 6 males and 17 females aged between 20 and 49 – we examine the ways in which figurational networks of family and kin shaped and reshape refugees’ experiences with and desires for mobility both into and within Jordan and their aspirations beyond Jordan. In particular, we find that family and kin networks provide key socio-cultural structures and figurational contours to the mobilities experienced by Syrians through (1) knowledge-sharing and (2) trust-based interactions. We pay careful attention to the idea that future mobility is as much about imaginations and aspirations that reflect the family- and kin-network figurations, which may or may not be grounded in the real possibilities for mobility.