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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Syrians in Denmark after the fall of the Assad regime, this paper explores what it means to imagine, inhabit and labor towards a multitude of simultaneous futures, as you navigate and resist the futures imagined for you in a shifting political landscape.

Paper long abstract

Days after the fall of the Assad regime, as Syrians were still recalibrating their expectations for the future of Syria, the Danish Prime Minister made it very clear what kind of future, she envisioned for Syrians in Denmark: return. For the Syrians I encountered in my fieldwork, however, the future extends far beyond the binary question of returning or remaining. It contains a multitude of parallel and sometimes seemingly contradictory dreams, life projects and trajectories, and involves different forms of im/mobility. Meanwhile, individual ideas of 'a good life,' are deeply intertwined with fears, expectations and hopes for the collective future of Syria, which are not only highly polarized across the Syrian community, but also in flux as events unfold.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Syrians in Denmark conducted over the course of one year after the fall of the Assad regime, this paper centers the ways in which Syrians in Denmark not only imagine but also labor for ‘good lives’ in plural. I also explore how affective orientations (Ahmed, 2006; Bryant & Knight, 2019) towards this plurality of futures evolve in response to the political developments of both Syria and Denmark. Inspired by Ghassan Hage’s concept of diasporic lenticularity – i.e. the experience of inhabiting multiple realities at the same time (Hage 2021), I examine what it means to imagine, inhabit and work towards a multitude of simultaneous futures, as you navigate and/or resist the futures imagined for you in a shifting political landscape.