Waiting and Wellbeing Among Syrian Refugees During Periods of War, Displacement, and Resettlement

The Syrian Refugee Crisis, which began in 2011, is among the worst since WWII and continues to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of Syrian refugees. Through an ethnographic approach, I examine the wellbeing of Syrian refugees within the chronologies of peace, war, displacement, and resettlement to the United States. Specifically, I focus on the concepts of waiting and liminality to understand the wellbeing and identity of Syrian refugees. My research shows that the refugees' definition of wellbeing changes during the different phases of peace, war, displacement, and resettlement; ideas of wellbeing are reinforced within each waiting space; and as refugees, Syrians enter into a liminal stage of de-identification and loss of personhood. Nevertheless, they employ diverse strategies to escape each waiting space in an effort to improve wellbeing.