CMES Research Seminar: On Power of Desire in Risk-Taking - A Case Study of Syrians’ Migration to Europe

This seminar will illuminate the perception of risk in irregular migration, dawning on the narratives of Syrian refugees who arrived in Europe at the beginning of the war in Syria. Specifically, it aims to fill in the knowledge gap on the combination of factors that have a bearing on the decision to migrate and how they interact and produce migration outcomes.

The decision to migrate is approached through the entanglement between risk perception and desire. The main argument is based on the contrast between research participants' review of their risky migration experience, on the one side, and their present risk evaluation for potential migrants, on the other. From this perspective, Lejla concludes that the migrants' desire to become 'otherwise', which in the context of the study is to live safely, send kids to school and have the right to work, created the potential for movement by making risk appear smaller. In contrast, the risk is a significant influencing factor in the non-personal risk-benefit interpretation given the inability to account for other person's desires.

Keywords: Forced migration, risk perception, desire, Syrian refugees.

Lejla Sunagic is a PhD student at the Risk Management and Societal Safety, LTH. Her PhD project explores drivers in forced, irregular migration and their configurations that produce migration outcomes. The project adopts a qualitative method based on narratives by Syrian refugees who came to Europe via the Mediterranean routes.'

Hybrid Seminar

The talk is held at CMES, Finngatan 16 in Lund. If you are not able to attend in-person, there is an option to attend via Zoom. Please register here for Zoom attendance: https://lu-se.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Yvc--tqD0vHdDTfG7v8DCtVFsRi-DruG-D

This event is part of the spring 2023 CMES seminar series. For more information see the full program: