The European refugee crisis is the largest movement of peoples within the continent since World War II. One of the peculiarities of this crisis IS that refugees from elsewhere are fleeing to Europe, whereas from the 15^th to the 20th centuries Europeans were themselves massively involved in out-migration, settling and colonizing in most parts of the world. This is but one of many such crises in the contemporary world, though at the moment the largest, due to a multitude of factors including wars, political instability, and lack of economic opportunity in what is often called the global South. Europe, especially Germany and the Scandinavian countries in the north, is a relative island of peace and political and economic stability among the storms elsewhere. About half of the refugees come from Arab countries, the vast majority from Syria, undoubtedly in flight due to the failure of the “Arab Spring” revolutions, as well as of the American intervention and occupation of Iraq. This panel takes up the experience of this crisis, linking Syria, which is generating the refugee flow, to some of the major countries harboring the refugees.

            Panelists discuss the Syrian refugee crisis from anthropological perspectives. They examine the experience of displacement of refugees and the Lebanese, Turkish, German and Swiss responses. They elaborate everyday issues of integration and xenophobia, care and survival, changing lifecourse and family issues, and new ideological framings.