Migration Struggles along the Humanitarian Border: Syrian Displacement in Lebanon and Ways to Travel to Europe

Abstract

This article explores migration struggles along Europe’s humanitarian border in the context of Syrian displacement in Lebanon. Based on ethnographic field research it traces how humanitarian government is negotiated, appropriated and resisted in the daily struggles of individuals seeking to leave the region towards Europe. In this respect it sheds light on Syrian activism in Lebanon’s humanitarian sector, strategies to get a place in a humanitarian admission programme, projects to leave the country towards Europe and decisions to stay in Lebanon. The article shows how the arbitrariness of humanitarian government is not limited to institutions or campsites but penetrates as a ruling logic the everyday of social life and contributes to zones where access to human rights is not a given, but a daily struggle.