Civil war beginning in 2011 displaced millions of Syrians from cities and regions including Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and Idlib. Large refugee populations entered Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Europe, while millions more were displaced within Syria. It became one of the largest forced migrations of the twenty-first century.

Syrian poets and artists used exile to document imprisonment, ruined cities, dangerous crossings and uncertain asylum. Writers such as Nouri al-Jarrah, Golan Haji and Samar Yazbek helped create an international literature of revolution and displacement.