On the Lived Experience of the Syrian Diaspora in Canada
Date
2019-01-03
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Abstract
The Syrian Diaspora today is a complex topic that speaks to issues of dislocation, displacement, loss, exile, identity, resilience and a desire for belonging. My research sought to better understand these issues and the lived experience and human condition of the Syrian Diaspora. In my research, I thought through this main question: How do Syrian newcomers come to make sense of what it means to have lost a home and a homeland as it relates to the Syrian Diasporic experience? I broached the Syrian diasporic subject by thinking through an anti-Orientalist, anti- colonial framework, and I engaged autoethnography as a research methodology and as a method as I reflexively thought through and wrote from my own personal experience as a Syrian immigrant so that I could better understand the Syrian refugee’s human experience. I held three open-ended, unstructured, interactive interviews in which I engaged my participants’ voices and stories in co-constructing knowledge on my research topic. My research participants were three Syrian refugee families in Calgary, and the interviews were held with the adults in the family. I sought a heterogeneous representation in my participants by seeking diversity in religion/ethnicity, in educational and socio-economic backgrounds, in political affiliations, as well as in their routes of immigration. I employed the notion of a “cultural verstehen of others,” or an empathetic understanding of others, and I reflected on how it can act as an important tool in a process of “cross-cultural pollination” (Chang, 2008, pp. 27-29) between Syrian newcomers and Canadian hosts. As I autoethnographically analyzed, presented, and interpreted the stories as told by the peoples of the Syrian Diaspora, I identified the following themes: “On the meanings and feelings of the lived experience of the Syrian Diasporic realities,” “On issues of language,” and “On creating new possibilities: Activating and actualizing the third space.” My findings spoke to the meaning of homeland, the meaning and feeling of being refugee, forced displacement, cultural identity, negotiating differences, resilience, language, cultural intersections and third spaces, and activating and actualizing the third space.
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Keywords
Syrian Refugees, Autoethnography, Syrian Diaspora
Citation
Alatrash, G. (2019). On the Lived Experience of the Syrian Diaspora in Canada (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.