Based on various fieldworks conducted between 2013 and 2016, and 60 semi-directed interviews with Syrian refugees, this paper questions how local and national levels shape the situation of uncertainty experienced by Syrian refugees in Egypt. More specifically, in the Egyptian political context characterised by an authoritarian legal framework and increasing levels of violence, it shows how Syrian refugees create their own adjustment strategies, and try to initiate a « Syrian community » with specific practices, networks, narratives and labelling. Since March 2011, Egypt has been facing the largest wave of immigration in its history with the arrival of approximately 300, 000 Syrians. First, a large part of them was driven by the hope of finding in Egypt a "revolutionary solidarity", a common culture based on Arab language and a shared past. But, since the Revolution of 25 of January, the Egyptian political system has treated the issue of Syrian refugees both as an opportunity and as a threat, largely communicated to the Egyptian society through official medias. Under Mohamed Morsi, groups of exiled activists and religious associations openly participated to an external opposition to the Syrian regime. The pro-revolution policy statements of Mohamed Morsi favoured the rise of this mobilisation. Syrian refugees were at that time able to pretend to a prestigious status of “activists” or “revolutionaries”. The fall of Mohamed Morsi on the 3rd of July 2013 put an end to the favourable climate towards Syrian refugees and gave rise to stigma and authoritarian repression. A propaganda machine has since then been set up against both Muslim Brotherhood and Syrians. With the implementation of new visa restrictions, it has become for the Syrians a pressing and critical need to be a refugee, in an official way through registration to UNHCR. The haziness surrounding the legal framework regarding asylum offers to the Egyptian state to change an host attemp of public policy to a safe management of refugees. By ostracizing refugees, it denies them any social existence in the public space and prevents them from articulating a discourse of contestation against the State’s authority. Against this background, this paper explores the agency of Syrian refugees in Egypt and shows how they are still managing to build a collective voice and memory.