Even though the highest number of forcibly displaced people originates from Syria today, the country has been a refugee hosting area even well before its formation as a nominally independent state under the French mandate (1920-1946). Since then it has become a home for thousands of refugees from Circassians to Kurds, Assyrians to Armenians among others. Crucially, however, the increased mobility of refugees and migrants who settled in the Levant happened at a critical historical juncture marked by the First World War, the subsequent disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, and the frustrated attempt to create an independent Arab state. While most scholars have focused their attention on the struggle between Arab nationalists (urban notables, rural leaders, popular committees) and the French colonial rulers, few have sought to analyse both the direct and indirect role played by refugees and migrants in the shaping of modern Syria. Drawing from primary sources of the French Mandate archival records, Arabic and Armenian language newspapers and secondary sources this paper will examine the impact of the Armenian refugees amidst Syrians’ struggle to define statehood and citizenship after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Importantly, these debates took place at a time of both territorial uncertainty and French tutelage. The mandatory authorities practically decided on all fundamental matters including the hosting and the settlement of refugees, as well as granting them with citizenship. The debate over citizenship prompted hot debates in the Syrian press and among the Syrian political elite who should be considered ‘’Syrian’’ in the society, and the role of religion and ethnicity in the definition of Syrian identity. This paper examines how and to what extent the increased mobility across the Turkish-Syrian border and the settlement of Armenian refugees not only influenced the state-building process and the making of national identity in Syria, but also forced the Armenian community to determine their own strategies of integration at this time of heightened political and territorial uncertainty.