Recently, Carnegie released a major report on Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan titled “Unheard Voices: What Syrian Refugees Need to Return Home.” The lead author was Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, who has worked extensively on refugee questions in recent years and has published several articles on the topic at Diwan. The purpose of the report was to outline refugee attitudes toward the prospect of return, and determine what preconditions refugees might have before deciding to go home. The report found that, “[w]hat is most striking is that despite the increasingly difficult challenges they face, a majority are unwilling to go back unless a political transition can assure their safety and security, access to justice, and right of return to areas of origin.” Diwan sat down with Yahya in mid-April to discuss the report and its wider implications.
Giving Refugees an Ear
Maha Yahya discusses a major Carnegie report on what it will take for displaced Syrians to return to their country.
More work from Diwan
Conflict and RefugeesThe evolving conflicts in the Arab region have been the cause for the world’s largest waves of migration and displacement since World War II. Carnegie scholars in Beirut, Brussels and Washington unpack the consequences of the refugee crises on Europe, and their implications (the Syrian refugee crisis in particular) on the politics, economy and security of the Middle East.
An Old Lebanese HabitAs with Lebanon’s other sects, has Hezbollah’s hubris brought devastating sectarian nemesis?
The Palestinian Struggle Needs to be ReimaginedThe U.S. election result and Yahya Sinwar’s death are markers that the contemporary national movement is moribund.
Syria’s Objective Is to Disunite From the ArenasThe priority of the Assad regime as the conflict in Lebanon rages is political survival, which has taken precedence over all else.
Complicit in the Middle East’s DistressIn an interview, Marwan Muasher looks back on U.S. policy toward the ongoing crisis, and sees even worse ahead.
