The Securitization and De-securitization of Syrian Refugees in the Lebanese Newspapers and Through the Lens of Refugees’ Narratives

Abstract

With the outbreak of Syria’s conflict in 2011, more than five million displaced Syrians sought refuge in neighboring countries, including Lebanon. These host countries have however portrayed their displacement as temporary and have taken restrictive measures to limit refugee influx and control mobility. In Lebanon, a country of “no-asylum”, displaced Syrians struggled with deteriorating livelihoods and an acute climate of securitization, compounded by historical and political tensions. Against this backdrop, the Lebanese print media, that internalized political factions’ speech acts, heavily engaged with the theme of refugees as security, economic and social threats. Still, unlike many accounts that portrayed this engagement as monolithic, this thesis argues that newspapers offered heterogeneous conceptions of the issue of refugee securitization. It also shows how Syrian refugees have in turn produced narratives to challenge prevalent media misconceptions. To explore the complex field of securitization versus de-securitization in the context of Syrian forced migration, this research will critically unpack how Lebanese newspapers have framed Syrian refugees through various discursive perspectives and platforms. More specifically, it will shed light on how two Lebanese newspapers, Annahar and Al Akhbar, have dealt with the issue of securitizing displacement from Syria, and how they have constructed various narratives and counter-narratives vis-à-vis refugeeness. In more specific terms, the research argues that while Annahar transmitted and vehiculated politicians’ security speech acts, Al Akhbar offered a discursive platform that allowed for rethinking refugeeness as a security threat. To provide a complimentary perspective, the research will examine how Syrian refugees have in turn resisted securitization through conveying their voices and producing counter-frames that challenged securitized portrayals. In so doing, the thesis will contribute to the complex literature on the processes, dynamics, and factors underlying the securitization and de-securitization of forced migration.