Shaping the Discourse of Syrian Experience in France

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Five days following the November 2015 attacks in Paris, President François Hollande reiterated a pledge he made in September of that year that France would accept and resettle 30,000 refugees from Syria over two years. Since then, the total number of Syrian refugees in France has risen to just over 11,000, up from 1,300 in 2013. In comparison, Germany has accepted over 300,000 Syrian refugees since 2011, while Sweden has taken in some 50,000. France, it seems, remains a contentious destination for Syrians seeking asylum in Europe.

           Despite this disparity, a diverse range of organizations have mobilized in France to provide aid to Syrians as they settle in the country and to coordinate support through donations, volunteer efforts, and events. These organizations also serve as virtual advocates for the interests of Syrian refugees, helping to make sense of their presence in France by sharing the story of their plight and providing information on the conflict itself. In particular, the websites such non-governmental organizations create and manage serve as a record of their efforts, defining the problems faced by Syrians in France and sharing analysis of developments in Syria’s civl war. Websites not only catalogue the work of these NGOs but also a specific engagement with the experience of Syrians in France. They register this experience through mission statements that describe conditions faced by refugees, calls for more productive ways of living together, images of young Syrian children studying in French schools, and reports on conditions in Syria.

            This paper seeks to engage and analyze the rhetoric of one such organization’s website as an archive of the Syrian experience in France. “Souria Houria” (“Free Syria” in Arabic) was founded in May 2011 by Syrians living in France with the stated goal of supporting the revolution in Syria financially and intellectually. Since then, the organization has expanded its mission to include artistic and cultural engagements such as festivals and art exhibitions as well as panel discussion in Arabic, all of which are held in France and aim to “boost reflection … around the struggle of Syrians for democracy.”[1] An assessment of their work as it is presented online will treat the way they organize and activate knowledge around the Syrian refugee crisis in France and Europe as well as the conflict in Syria to educate the public and provide aid to Syrians. More broadly, this paper aims to show how this collection of experience describes a moment, contributing to a virtual record that correspondences to Michel Foucault’s conception of the archive as “a system of statements,” helping to define what is said about Syrian refugees and the Syrian civil war more broadly in France.[2]

 

[1] “Qui sommes nous?” Souria Houria, las modified April 17, 2013, http://souriahouria.com/qui-sommes-nous/.

[2] Michel Foucault, “The Historical a priori and the Archive,” in The Archive, ed. Charles Merewether (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2006), 29.