The Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Looking for a Convivial Habitat

Abstract

The Syrian crisis has caused one of the greatest episodes of forced displacement since World War II and some of the densest refugee-hosting situations in modern history. Lebanon has hosted more than 1 million Syrian refugees. This article is based on a large multisectoral survey of Syrian refugees' households in Bekaa, conducted by the Union of Relief and Development Associations (URDA) in the period 2016-17 with a total of 1614 households and 6199 individuals. It assesses the socio-economic and living conditions of this representative sample (i.e., the location of refugees and housing conditions, the legal status of refugees, family expenditure, shelter, displacement, education, work, health, child health including child marriage). Among many vulnerabilities experienced by Syrian refugees, we identify three salient domains of precariousness, which are education, health, and early marriage. A particular analysis covers the differential analysis between camp dwellers versus urban ones, and the conviviality of the former compared with the latter. © 2022 by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies. All rights reserved