What Happens When Syrian Refugees Return Home?

When Syrian refugees return home, most find that crossing the border was the easy part. The months after arrival bring a search for a roof, an income, school places and missing papers, and that search decides whether a return lasts.

The scale is huge. UNHCR estimates that about 1.82 million Syrians came back from abroad between 8 December 2024 and 1 October 2026, around 713,000 of them from Turkey (Arab News, citing UNHCR). Yet in a 2026 survey of 363 returnees, most of whom had lived in Turkey, only 5% said conditions in Syria matched what they expected (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion, May 2026).

We are Imece, a small grassroots association in İzmir. Since December 2024, the Syrian families we work with have asked us the same question again and again: should we go back? This guide brings together what the latest research says about life after return, and how our Back to Home programme helps women prepare before they leave.

Why Families Are Returning Now

The fall of the Assad government in December 2024 removed the main reason most Syrians left: 91% of returnees from abroad in one survey said violence and insecurity had driven them out (MMC, April 2026). Family, home and belonging pull people back. But for refugees in Turkey, pressure in exile matters too.

In the same 2026 survey, 45% of returnees named money problems and lack of income in their host country as a reason for going back. Another 32% cited an unclear legal situation, and 32% wanted to reunite with family and help rebuild (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion). Most decided informally: 82% made the choice with relatives and contacts in Syria rather than through any official advice.

The same report notes two changes in Turkey that narrowed people’s options. “Go-and-see” visits, which let refugees check conditions in Syria without losing their status, stopped in July 2025. Automatic health coverage for people under temporary protection ended in January 2026.

We look at these push and pull factors in depth in Why Are Syrian Refugees Returning? What We See in İzmir. For the full count by country, see Syrian Refugees Returning to Syria. This article picks up the story at the border.

What Returnees Find When They Arrive

Most returnees come back to damaged homes, little power and few services. In an International Rescue Committee survey of 425 returnees in seven governorates, 91% said essential services were missing and 71% were living in damaged housing (IRC, July 2026).

A home, but often not their own

Many families cannot move straight back into the house they left. UNHCR interviewed 7,120 households across all 14 governorates in early 2026. Only 37% of refugee returnees lived in their own property, compared with 62% of host-community families. Another 36% were staying with relatives or friends, and about a quarter were renting (UNHCR, Protection and Reintegration Insights, Q1 2026).

Among returnees surveyed for the FORCE4Refugees report, 36% came back to partly damaged homes and 14% had lost their homes entirely. Almost half (48%) had lost some or all of their property documents (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion).

Power and water by the hour

In that same survey, 92% of returnees had electricity for less than five hours a day. For 82%, piped water ran for less than five hours a week, and 81% said medical treatment was too expensive to afford (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion).

Papers that open every door

Without an ID card or family booklet, families struggle to reach services, enrol children or move freely. One in five refugee returnee households (19%) reported missing civil documents. Issuing new national ID cards and family booklets was suspended while a new format was prepared, and consular fees stood at USD 50 per document or civil event (UNHCR, Q1 2026).

Children who learned in Turkish

Children raised in Turkey often start school in Syria with weak Arabic. UNHCR reports that some returnee children from Turkey and Lebanon have been placed in lower grades because of language and curriculum gaps (UNHCR, Q1 2026). In the Mixed Migration Centre’s survey of 3,803 returnees, 33 of the 42 respondents who named language as a school barrier had come back from Turkey (MMC, April 2026).

Fields that are not yet safe

Explosive ordnance still kills and injures people almost daily. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, 239 incidents killed 153 people and injured 299. Most (72%) happened on farmland or grazing land, which makes earning a living from the land one of the riskiest things a returnee can do (UNHCR, Q1 2026).

The Reintegration Gap: Skills, Housing, Income

The biggest gap after return is income. Researchers find that returnees reconnect with family and community faster than they find work, a home of their own or enough money to live on (MMC).

Income comes first

In the Mixed Migration Centre’s survey in Aleppo, Homs and Idleb, securing an income was the most common problem on arrival, named by 67% of returnees from abroad. Overall, 60% said their household income did not cover their needs, and another 16% had no income at all (MMC, April 2026).

For people coming from Turkey the picture is harder still. In the FORCE4Refugees survey, 76% of returnees saw no way to earn an income, 98% had lost their previous job and 80% lacked the money to start something new (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion). More than half of households in UNHCR’s survey had used up savings to get by (53%) (UNHCR, Q1 2026).

Skills that did not travel

Years abroad did not always build skills that pay in Syria. 59% of returnees from abroad said they had gained no skill or qualification while away that would improve their chances at home. Those who did most often named languages (23%) or vocational qualifications (14%) (MMC).

Women carry a heavier load

The gap is widest for women. Only 13% of women returnees in the MMC survey were earning an income, compared with 62% of men. Among women who were not working, 69% said caring for children, the home or older relatives kept them out of work (MMC). In UNHCR’s survey, around six in ten women respondents said they head their household (UNHCR, Q1 2026).

Housing is harder for them too. A 2026 UN gender analysis found that nearly 67% of returned women-headed households live in damaged houses or flats. Property is often registered in a husband’s name, and inheritance rules give women a smaller share (UN Women, Update on Women, Peace and Security in Syria, April 2026).

Little help after arrival

Only 8% of MMC respondents had received any free assistance since returning, while 79% said they needed cash support and 40% wanted help starting a business (MMC). Eligible households can receive a one-off USD 600 reintegration grant from UNHCR, but only 31,083 refugee-returnee households received return cash between January and August 2026 (Arab News, citing UNHCR). The country’s rebuilding bill is about USD 216 billion, nearly ten times its 2024 economy (World Bank, October 2025).

Belonging, and second thoughts

Social ties often recover first: 94% of MMC respondents felt they belonged in their community (MMC). Other returnees feel like strangers. In the FORCE4Refugees survey, only 8% felt fully accepted, and 60% of families reported anxiety symptoms in at least one member. Among 82 returnees from Turkey asked about the next six months, 13% planned to go back to their previous host country and 17% to a third country (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion). The two studies used different samples and places, so their results differ. Both name the lack of work as the biggest threat to a lasting return.

In Returnees’ Own Words

We do not share stories from our own participants yet: the women in Back to Home are still preparing to leave, and their privacy comes first. Here is what Syrians who have already gone back told researchers and journalists.

A family of seven households, back from Turkey. Jihan Hamad Al-Khalaf’s extended family left Turkey and were all back in Syria by March 2025. With too few habitable homes, they split between Damascus, Deraa and rural Deir Ezzor, and two families of about 20 people shared one house. They rebuilt slowly, adding a door or a window each month as relatives found work, and younger children needed tutors to catch up in Arabic. “No organization, government agency, or anyone else helped us with the repairs,” she said (Arab News).

A woman who went back too soon. A 30-year-old woman who returned to Aleppo said she had rushed the decision and “needed more time to assess the situation properly.” Another woman, back in Homs from Turkey, told the same researchers that prices there were higher than in Turkey and her income was not enough (MMC).

Work that does not cover rent. A man in Aleppo said jobs were scarce while food and rent kept rising, with wages of “only $40 a week.” A woman who returned to Douma described the opposite pull: after years of discrimination in exile, going home was about getting back dignity and belonging (FORCE4Refugees and Upinion).

Hope and hardship sit side by side in every account. Income, a liveable home and children’s schooling come up again and again, and those are the gaps Back to Home is built around.

How Imece’s Back to Home Program Helps

We do not tell families whether to stay or go. That decision is theirs, and it should be informed, voluntary and safe. What we can do is help women leave with skills that answer the gaps the research describes.

Back to Home is our newest programme. It offers Syrian women preparing to return vocational training, while their children join language, psychosocial and art-and-wood workshops. Each skill matches a problem returnees report:

Sources for the right-hand column are linked in the sections above.

Back to Home grows out of our Solar Age Project, which has trained refugee women, our “Solar Ladies”, in solar engineering since 2018 and won a COP26 Gender Just Climate Solutions Award in 2021. A woman who can wire a house and maintain a solar system can power her own home and offer that skill to neighbours.

Support This Work

Imece is a small team, so steady support lets us plan classes and training months ahead.

• Give monthly to fund training for women and workshops for their children.
• Volunteer in İzmir and bring your skills to our education programmes.
• Help from home through Imece Germany or Imece France, or share this article with someone asking what return really looks like.

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