Will Syria’s Most Productive Citizens Ever Return Home?

Today, five years after democratic protests against Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime turned into open civil conflict, the ebb and flow of inconclusive military campaigns has, according to United Nations (UN), cost roughly 250,000 lives—what many see as a conservative estimate. From this cauldron of conflict, groups like ISIS have risen to become global terrorist threats and, as FBI Director James Comey warned on Wednesday, even if these groups are defeated in Syria, their adherents may simply escape to wreak havoc in Europe. “At some point there’s going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve never seen before,” Comey said.

However, perhaps more important than this threat is the number of Syrians who have been forced from their homes. According to Amnesty International, roughly half of Syria’s 23 million people have been displaced by conflict, and of those displaced, some 4.8 million have left the country entirely to become international refugees. Spread mostly across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, the immediate plight of these refugees, and the pressures they place on regional and global host countries, has attracted wide media coverage.