Syrian diaspora

Syrian diaspora
Total population
From 8 to possibly 15 million
Languages
Native: Syrian Arabic
Also Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, French, English, German, Swedish, Kurdish, Finnish, Turkish
Religion
Islam, Christianity, Alawites, Druze, Syrian Jews
Map of the Syrian diaspora around the world.
  Syria
  +1,000,000
  +100,000
  +10,000
  +1,000
Two Syrian women in NYC, 1916.
Syrian baklava maker in Little Syria in 1916.
Syrian immigrant children on Washington Street in Lower Manhattan in 1916.
Syrian folk group in Brazil, displaying the former flag of Syria.

Syrian diaspora refers to Syrian people and their descendants who chose or were forced to emigrate from Syria and now reside in other countries as immigrants, or as refugees of the Syrian Civil War.

The estimated number of people of Syrian descent residing outside Syria ranges from 8 to 13 million.: 1  The UNHCR reports that 4.9 million global refugees in 2015 were Syrian nationals. The Syrian nationality law does not grant diaspora Syrians an automatic right of return to Syria, and under the controversial 2018 Absentees Law, the Assad regime confiscated property of millions of Syrians.

Populations

Country Estimate Upper Estimate Region Country article in English Wikipedia
+
 Brazil 1,000,000 according to a research conducted by IBGE in 2008, covering only the states of Amazonas, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Distrito Federal, 0.9% of caucasoid Brazilian respondents said they had family origins in the Middle East 4,000,000 people of Syrian ancestry (according to Brazilian government) South America Syrian Brazilian
 Turkey 2,310,408 registered (February 2026) Europe
Asia		 Syrians in Turkey
 Lebanon 532,357 registered (December 2025) Middle East Syrians in Lebanon
 Jordan 404,047 registered (February 2026) 1,400,000 estimated (August 2015) Middle East Syrians in Jordan
 Germany 1,281,000 (2023) European Union Syrians in Germany
 Argentina 1,500,000 2,000,000 South America Syrian Argentine
 Saudi Arabia 449,314 (2022 census) 449,000 Middle East Syrians in Saudi Arabia
 Iraq 310‚000 estimated (December 2024) Middle East Syrian in iraq
 Sudan 250,000 estimated (2017) Africa
 United Arab Emirates >250,000 estimated (2016) Middle East Syrians in the United Arab Emirates
 Sweden 250 000 (2021) European Union Syrians in Sweden
 United States 187,331 (by ancestry, 2016 U.S Census Bureau) North America Syrian American
 Egypt 107,976 registered (February 2026) North Africa and Middle East
 Kuwait 120,000 estimated (2015) Middle East Syrians in Kuwait
 Canada 98,250 (by ancestry, 2021 Census) 130,000 North America Syrian Canadian
 Greece 88,204 (2015) European Union Syrians in Greece
 France 80,000 (2024) European Union Syrians in France
 Austria 68,000 (2019) European Union Syrians in Austria
 Algeria 50,000 – 84,700 North Africa and Middle East Syrians in Algeria
 Australia 29,096 (Syrian-born resident, 2021) Oceania Syrian Australians
 Israel 24,800 (2019) 115,000 Middle East
 Venezuela 15,632 (Syrian-born resident, 2015) 1,000,000 Venezuelans of Syrian descent Latin America Syrian Venezuelan
 Ivory Coast 15,000 (Syrian-born, 2024) Sub-Saharan Africa Syrians in Ivory Coast
 Finland 10,403 (2022) European Union Syrians in Finland
Guadeloupe (Overseas France) 10,000 Caribbean
 United Kingdom 8,848 England & Wales unknown in Scotland and 2,000 in Northern Ireland. (2019) Europe Syrians in the United Kingdom

See also

References

  1. ↑ Singh, Shubha (18 June 2008). "Like India, Syria has a large diaspora (With stories on Syrian president's visit)". Theindian News. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Ferris, Elizabeth; Kerisci, Kemal (2016). The Consequences of Chaos: Syria's Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect. Washington: Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 9780815729525. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "Figures at a Glance". United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Syria: 'Absentees law' could see millions of refugees lose lands | Syria News | Al Jazeera".
  5. ↑ "Syria: Residents Blocked From Returning | Human Rights Watch". 2018-10-16.
  6. ↑ IBGE. IBGE: Características Étnico-Raciais da População Archived 2016-01-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ "Syrian Arabic Republic". www.itamaraty.gov.br. Archived from the original on 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  8. ↑ "UNHCR/Syrian Regional Refugee Response / Türkiye". UNHCR. 26 February 2026. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  9. ↑ "UNHCR/Syrian Regional Refugee Response/ Lebanon". UNHCR. 31 December 2025. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  10. ↑ "UNHCR/Syrian Regional Refugee Response / Jordan". UNHCR. 28 February 2026. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  11. ↑ ""الغذاء العالمي" يوقف مساعدة لاجئين سوريين في الأردن". Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Bevölkerung in Privathaushalten 2023 nach Migrationshintergrund". Statistisches Bundesamt. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  13. ↑ "Saudi Arabia 2022 Census" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-04-28. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  14. ↑ "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response/ Iraq". UNHCR. 28 February 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  15. ↑ "Sudan imposes security clearance ahead of citizenship for Syrian refugees". 9 August 2017.
  16. ↑ "UAE home to 242,000 Syrians". Khaleej Times. AP.
  17. ↑ "The UAE is going to start taking in Syrian refugees". What's On Dubai. 29 September 2016.
  18. ↑ "Var femte asylsökande kom från Syrien". Statistics Sweden. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  19. ↑ "Antalet asylsökande från Syrien har fördubblats". Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  20. ↑ "Största folkökningen någonsin". Statistics Sweden. Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  21. ↑ "Stor ökning av ensamkommande flyktingbarn". Statistics Sweden. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  22. ↑ "Befolkning efter födelseland, ålder, kön och år". Statistics Sweden. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  23. ↑ "Syrierna i Sverige: så har det gått". Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  24. ↑ "SELECTED POPULATION PROFILE IN THE UNITED STATES 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". American FactFinder. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 11 November 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  25. ↑ "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response/ Egypt". UNHCR. 28 February 2026. Retrieved 8 March 2026.
  26. ↑ "Kuwait extends residency permits for Syrians". UNHCR. 2 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  27. ↑ Statistics Canada (2023-02-01). "2021 Ethnic Origin, both sexes, age (total), Canada, 2021 Census – 25% Sample data: Data tables". Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  28. ↑ Bouras, Stelios (2 September 2015). "Financially Strapped Greece Struggles With Flood of Refugees/". WSJ. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  29. ↑ "'Syria is not yet safe for everyone': Refugees in France contemplate post-Assad future". 8 March 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-03-08. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  30. ↑ "Des réfugiés aimeraient retourner en Syrie, tout en ayant la garantie d'un retour en France possible". Le Monde. 5 February 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-02-10. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
  31. ↑ "Syriens en France 2022". 21 June 2023. Archived from the original on 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  32. ↑ "Immigrés par pays de naissance détaillé − Étrangers et immigrés en 2019". Insee. Archived from the original on 2023-05-12. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  33. ↑ "Qui sont les millions de réfugiés afghans, en France et dans le monde ?". Le Monde. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  34. ↑ "BMI" (PDF). www.bmi.gv.at.
  35. ↑ STATISTIK AUSTRIA. "Bevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeit und Geburtsland". Retrieved 8 August 2015. [permanent dead link]
  36. ↑ Koundouno, Tamba François (3 January 2019). "Algeria Shuts Border to Syrian Refugees, Invokes Terrorism Threat". Morocco World News. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  37. ↑ "We have welcomed 50,000 Syrians in recent years for humanitarian reasons". bbc.com. 13 May 2025. Archived from the original on 6 May 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  38. ↑ "Réfugiés dans le pays depuis le début de la guerre en 2011 : à quoi rêvent les syriens d'Algérie ?". elmoudjahid.dz. 13 May 2025. Archived from the original on 6 May 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  39. ↑ "Réfugiés dans le pays depuis le début de la guerre en 2011 : à quoi rêvent les syriens d'Algérie ?". elmoudjahid.dz. 11 February 2025. Archived from the original on 11 February 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  40. ↑ "Syrians in Maghreb". 8 March 2025. Retrieved 2025-03-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  41. ↑ "2021 People in Australia who were born in Syria, Census Country of birth QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  42. ↑ "Jews, by Country of Origin and Age" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  43. ↑ "Table 16: Total migrant stock at mid-year by origin and by major area, region, country or area of destination, 2015". United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  44. ↑ Jordan, Levi. "Syria Steps into Latin America". Americas Society Council of the Americas. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Syria hopes will serve as an avenue to attract investment dollars from the one-million-strong community of Venezuelans of Syrian descent
  45. ↑ Vasquez, Fidel (October 2010). "Venezuela afianza relaciones con Siria" (in Spanish). Aristobulo Isturiz PSUV. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017. En Venezuela residen un poco más de 700 mil árabes de origen sirio
  46. ↑ Nachawati, Leila (March 2013). "Cómo será recordado Chávez en Siria" (in Spanish). ElDiario.es. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Se calcula que cerca de un millón de habitantes del país tiene origen sirio, personal o familiar.
  47. ↑ Gomez, Diego (Feb 2012). "EL LEVANTE Y AMÉRICA LATINA. UNA BITÁCORA DE LATINOAMÉRICA EN SIRIA, LÍBANO, JORDANIA Y PALESTINA". distintaslatitudes.net (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 January 2017. de acuerdo con el Instituto de Estadística de Venezuela, cerca de un millón de venezolanos tienen orígenes sirios y más de 20 mil venezolanos están registrados en el catastro del consulado sudamericano en Damasco.
  48. ↑ "International/ Après la chute de Bachar al-Assad, les Syriens de Côte d'Ivoire se prononcent". agencepresseradio. 11 February 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  49. ↑ "Why Finland May Not Let Some Asylum Seekers Stay, Despite Needing Them".
  50. ↑ "Syrie : les Guadeloupéens unis pour la paix". Fr Antilles. 1 January 2021. Archived from the original on 20 November 2024. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  51. ↑ "Ces Syriens réfugiés en Guadeloupe". Fr Antilles. 1 January 2021. Archived from the original on 20 November 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  52. ↑ "2011 Census: Country of birth (expanded), regions in England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  53. ↑ "Country of birth (detailed)" (PDF). National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  54. ↑ "Country of Birth – Full Detail: QS206NI". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  55. ↑ "ONS estimates for 2019".