Times of Uncertainty and Future Projections for Forced Migrations: The Case of Syrian Refugee Mothers and Youths in Canada

Migration scholars have recently been focusing on temporality as a distinct phenomenon of the migratory process. In this dissertation, I produce new knowledge on the temporal dimensions of forced migration by asking: how does time work with space to shape forced migrants’ experiences after resettling in the host country? Taking the important case of Syrian refugee families in Canada, I explore —in four chapters— how mothers and teenagers experience time and uncertainty, and perceive past, present, and future following their resettlement. I draw on two waves of in-depth interviews with 41 mothers during their first year of resettlement (2016-2017) and three waves with 20 additional mothers between 2018 and 2021. I also draw on in-depth interviews with 25 teenagers. First, I demonstrate the importance of examining refugee mothers’ future projections in the first year of resettlement and considering a cultural and religious dimension of future projection. I put forward two novel concepts (“foreclosed futures” and “entangled timelines”) that capture mothers’ future perceptions during this initial period. Second, I demonstrate the ways in which mothers’ language learning process in the host country shapes their temporal experiences beyond the first year of resettlement. I analyze the different ways in which mothers find themselves “stuck” in the present, where multiple structural barriers and individual challenges significantly slow down their language acquisition process and prevent them from achieving other goals. The conflict between government expectations for the long-term future and participants’ immediate priorities underscores how language, space, and time co-construct notions of the future. Moreover, I examine how age and life stage at the time of migration shape these teenagers’ temporal experiences in the host country. I analyze two different trajectories for refugee teenagers: those who arrived as children in the earlier waves now experience a “slow present,” while recently resettled older teenagers experience a “tense present.” Lastly, I discuss two innovative methods used in my research with refugee teenagers, including “collective interviewing” and the “timeline-drawing” activity, which have allowed participants to be more creative in narrating their stories and trajectories. Ultimately, these findings suggest that scholarship on forced migration may continue to benefit from attention to how time and temporal experiences shape newcomers’ lives.

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