Iraqi Migrants' Impact on a City. The Case of Damascus (2006-2010)

International audienceBlocks of flats under construction, pressure on the infrastructure, and crowded public spaces could be found all over Damascus in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, during the last years of the decade specific areas underwent particularly intense developments. These were mainly linked to internal and international migration movements. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, the conflict in Iraq was ongoing, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were forced to leave their country and moved in great numbers to Syria. The vast majority of the Iraqis came from the main cities in Iraq, and especially from Baghdad, and they settled in the suburbs of the Syrian capital. This chapter, based on an in-depth examination of change in areas with a high concentration of Iraqi refugees as well as the personal itineraries of Iraqi refugees, sets out to explore how everyday life in Damascus was changing in the 2000–2010 period. By looking into the public spaces and into how areas previously seen as small villages expanded and became an integrated part of the city, the chapter points to the important linkages between migration and urban development in contemporary Damascus