Abstracts
Abstract
In recent years, refugee response in Jordan has centred on self-reliance, aiming to support individuals in displacement and contain further movement. However, non-Syrian refugees have been largely overlooked. This article explores the relationship between self-reliance and resettlement for Sudanese refugee men in Amman. Drawing on conceptualizations of work beyond paid labour, I show how refugees have pursued resettlement through relational, emotional, physical, and administrative work. I contribute to understandings of how forced migrants work towards long-term solutions to displacement and add to the limited literature on Sudanese displacement in Jordan.
Keywords:
- refugees,
- resettlement,
- Jordan,
- Sudanese,
- work
Résumé
Ces dernières années, la réponse aux réfugiés en Jordanie s’est concentrée sur l’autonomie, visant à soutenir les personnes déplacées et à limiter les mouvements futurs. Cependant, les réfugiés non syriens ont été considérablement négligés. Cet article explore la relation entre l’autonomie et la réinstallation chez les hommes réfugiés soudanais à Amman. En m’appuyant sur des conceptualisations du travail allant au-delà du travail rémunéré, je montre comment les réfugiés ont mené à bien leur réinstallation par le biais d’un travail relationnel, émotionnel, physique et administratif. Je contribue à la compréhension de la manière dont les migrants forcés cherchent des solutions à long terme au déplacement et contribue à la littérature limitée sur le déplacement des Soudanais en Jordanie.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Ahmed, S. (2014). The cultural politics of emotion (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g09x4q
- Anholt, R., & Sinatti, G. (2020). Under the guise of resilience: The EU approach to migration and forced displacement in Jordan and Lebanon. Contemporary Security Policy, 41(2), 311–355 https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2019.1698182
- Appadurai, A. (2015). Foreword. In S. Graham & C. McFarlane (Eds.), Infrastructural lives: Urban infrastructure in context (pp. xxii–xxiii). Routledge.
- Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD)—Legal Aid. (2015). Putting needs over nationality: Meeting the needs of Somali and Sudanese refugees during the Syrian crisis. https://ardd-jo.org/archived_publication/ardd-la-putting-needs-over-nationality/
- Barbelet, V., Hagen-Zanker, J., & Mansour-Ille, D. (2018, February 8). The Jordan Compact: Lessons learnt and implications for future refugee compacts. ODI. https://www.odi.org/publications/11045-jordan-compact-lessons-learnt-and-implications-future-refugee-compacts
- Bardelli, N. (2018). The shortcomings of employment as a durable solution. Forced Migration Review, 58, 54–55. https://www.fmreview.org/economies/bardelli
- Baslan, D. (2015, December 22). Dwindling hope among Amman’s Sudanese community: Coping with poverty, instability and insecurity in a foreign land. Medium. https://medium.com/@dinabaslan/dwindling-hope-among-amman-s-sudanese-community-eefccce9cd57
- Baslan, D., Kvittingen, A., & Perlmann, M. (2017, November). Sheltering in Amman: Sudanese experiences and practices in a challenging urban environment. Mixed Migration Platform. http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/sheltering-in-amman/
- Baslan, D., & Leghtas, I. (2018, October 11). We need to help Jordan’s other refugees. Refugees Deeply. https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2018/10/11/we-need-to-help-jordans-other-refugees?fbclid=IwAR3T7teMCDeWKg8dqHaffmn9FY0g8e2mV2Vue3ebxsdGxf_NsNhK9Ei8XYM
- Bayat, A. (2013). Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804786331
- Betts, A., Omata, N., & Sterck, O. (2020). Self-reliance and social networks: Explaining refugees’ reluctance to relocate from Kakuma to Kalobeyei. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 62–85. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez084
- Bradley, M., Milner, J., & Peruniak, B. (2019). Refugees’ roles in resolving displacement and building peace: Beyond beneficiares. Georgetown University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxq90
- Brun, C. (2015). Active waiting and changing hopes: Toward a time perspective on protracted displacement. Social Analysis, 59(1), 19–37. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2015.590102
- Brun, C., & Shuayb, M. (2020). Exceptional and futureless humanitarian education of Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Prospects for shifting the lens. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 36(2), 20–30. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40717
- Caron, C. (2019). Hosting as shelter during displacement: Considerations for research and practice. Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 4, Article 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41018-019-0052-0
- Chimni, B. S. (2004). From resettlement to involuntary repatriation: Towards a critical history of durable solutions to refugee problems. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 23(3), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/23.3.55
- Clark-Kazak, C., & Thomson, M. J. (2019). Refugees’ roles in resettlement from Uganda and Tanzania: Agency, intersectionality, and relationships. In M. Bradley, J. Milner, & B. Peruniak (Eds.), Refugees’ roles in resolving displacement and building peace: Beyond beneficiaries (pp. 211–228). Georgetown University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxq90.16
- Crawford, N., Cosgrave, J., Haysom, S., & Walicki, N. (2015, September). Protracted displacement: Uncertain paths to self-reliance in exile. Overseas Development Institute. https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/9851.pdf
- Crisp, J. (2016, October). An end to exile? Refugee initiative and the search for durable solutions. In R. Jolly & M. Askwith (Eds.), Evidence report 205: The UN at 70, and the UK (pp. 119–125). Institute of Development Studies. https://bafuncs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UNat70_OnlineReport.pdf
- Davis, R., Taylor, A., Todman, W., & Murphy, E. (2016). Sudanese and Somali refugees in Jordan: Hierarchies of aid in protracted displacement crises. Middle East Report, 279, 1–5. https://merip.org/2016/09/sudanese-and-somali-refugees-in-jordan/
- Drotbohm, H. (2021). “Not a cozy dwelling”: Exploring aspirational anxieties and the politics of displacement in São Paulo’s squats. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, 12(3), 354–367. https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2021.0033
- Dryden-Peterson, S., Adelman, E., Bellino, M. J., & Chopra, V. (2019). The purposes of refugee education: Policy and practice of including refugees in national education systems. Sociology of Education, 92(4), 346–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040719863054
- Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). Warriors of self-reliance: The instrumentalization of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 143–166. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez062
- Easton-Calabria, E., & Omata, N. (2018). Panacea for the refugee crisis? Rethinking the promotion of “self-reliance” for refugees. Third World Quarterly, 39(8), 1458–1474. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1458301
- El-Shaarawi, N. (2015). Living an uncertain future: Temporality, uncertainty, and well-being among Iraqi refugees in Egypt. Social Analysis, 59(1), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2015.590103
- Fakhoury, T., & Stel, N. (2022). EU engagement with contested refugee returns in Lebanon: The aftermath of resilience. Geopolitics, 28(3), 1007–1032. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2022.2025779
- Gale, L. A. (2008). The invisible refugee camp: Durable solutions for Boreah “residuals” in Guinea. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(4), 537–552. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fen040
- Gill, N. (2018). The suppression of welcome. Fennia, 196(1), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.70040
- Gordon, J. (2021). The international governance of refugee work: Reflections on the Jordan compact. Global Public Policy and Governance, 1, 239–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-021-00019-6
- Government of Jordan. (2016). The Jordan Compact: A new holistic approach between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the international community to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/jordan-compact-new-holistic-approach-between-hashemite-kingdom-jordan-and
- Gowayed, H. (2019). Diverging by gender: Syrian refugees’ divisions of labor and formation of human capital in the United States. Gender and Society, 33(2), 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243218819753
- Harrell-Bond, B. E. (1986). Imposing aid: Emergency assistance to refugees. Oxford University Press.
- Human Rights Watch. (2015, December 16). Jordan: Deporting Sudanese asylum seekers. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/16/jordan-deporting-sudanese-asylum-seekers
- Human Rights Watch. (2020). Jordan: Events of 2019. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/jordan#
- Hyndman, J. (2000). Managing displacement: Refugees and the politics of humanitarianism. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttscf9
- Janmyr, M. (2021). Sudanese refugees and the “Syrian refugee response” in Lebanon: Racialised hierarchies, processes of invisibilisation, and resistance. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 41(1), 131–156.. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdab012
- Jansen, B. J. (2008). Between vulnerability and assertiveness: Negotiating resettlement in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. African Affairs, 107(429), 569–587. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adn044
- Johnston, R., Baslan, D., & Kvittingen, A. (2019). Realizing the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Jordan from countries other than Syria, with a focus on Yemenis and Sudanese. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/realizing-rights-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-jordan-countries-other-syria-focus
- Jordan, Z. (2020). Everyday humanitarians: Refugee hosting in protracted urban displacement in Amman, Jordan [PhD thesis, Oxford Brookes University]. RADAR. https://doi.org/10.24384/7jtm-rj84
- Jordan, Z. (2022). “The world we share”: Everyday relations and the political consequences of refugee-refugee hosting in Amman, Jordan. Citizenship Studies, 26(6), 868–884. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2022.2103976
- Jordan, Z. (2023). Refugee–refugee hosting as home in protracted urban displacement: Sudanese refugee men in Amman, Jordan. In S. Ilcan, V. Squire, Y. Shamma, & H. Underhill (Eds.), Migration, culture and identity: Making home away (pp. 31–53). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12085-5_3
- Kelberer, V. (2017). Negotiating crisis: International aid and refugee policy in Jordan. Middle East Policy, 24(4) 148–165. https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12313
- Kibreab, G. (1989). Local settlements in Africa: A misconceived option? Journal of Refugee Studies, 2(4), 468–490. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/2.4.468
- Kvittingen, A., Valenta, M., Tabbara, H., Baslan, D., & Berg, B. (2019). The conditions and migratory aspirations of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. Journal of Refugee Studies, 32(1), 106–124. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fey015
- Leeson, K., Bhandari, P. B., Myers, A., & Buscher, D. (2020). Measuring the self-reliance of refugees. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 86–105. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez076
- Lenner, K. (2020). “Biting our tongues”: Policy legacies and memories in the making of the Syrian refugee response in Jordan. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 39(3), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdaa005
- Lenner, K., & Turner, L. (2019). Making refugees work? The politics of integrating Syrian refugees into the labor market in Jordan. Middle East Critique, 28(1), 65–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2018.1462601
- Locher, M. A., & Watts, R. J. (2008). Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behaviour. In D. Bousfield & M. A. Locher (Eds.), Impoliteness in language: Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice (pp. 77–100). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208344.2.77
- Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). (2017, November). On the basis of nationality: Access to assistance for Iraq and other asylum-seekers and refugees in Jordan. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/basis-nationality-access-assistance-iraqi-and-other-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-jordan
- Mixed Migration Platform (MMP). (2017a, April). Displaced minorities—Part I: Migration and displacement trends of Somali, Sudanese and Yemeni refugees and other migrants in Jordan. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/displaced-minorities-part-i-migration-and-displacement-trends-somali-sudanese-and
- Mixed Migration Platform (MMP). (2017b, April). Displaced minorities—Part II: Experiences and needs of Somali, Sudanese and Yemeni refugees and other migrants in Jordan. http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/displaced-minorities-part-ii/
- Monforte, P. (2021). Protestors’ emotional work in contexts of marginalisation: The emancipation of “forced migrants” in Germany. Antipode, 53(2), 445–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12668
- Morris, J. (2020). Extractive landscapes: The case of the Jordan refugee compact. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 36(1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40623
- Omata, N. (2019). “Over-researched” and “under-researched” refugees. Forced Migration Review, 61, 15–18. https://www.fmreview.org/ethics/omata
- Ozkul, D., & Jarrous, R. (2021). How do refugees navigate the UNHCR’s bureaucracy? The role of rumours in accessing humanitarian aid and resettlement. Third World Quarterly, 42(10), 2247–2264. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1928487
- Pascucci, E. (2017). Community infrastructures: Shelter, self-reliance and polymorphic borders in urban refugee governance. Territory, Politics, Governance, 5(3), 332–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2017.1297252
- Pascucci, E. (2018). Who welcomes? The geographies of refugee aid as care work—Commentary to Gill. Fennia, 196(2), 236–238. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.76588
- Rung, D. L., Hetz, H., & Radford, D. (2023). “I came to Australia with very big hope, big wishes, big goals”: Applying “mobility work” and “resettlement work” to explore the emotional labour and subaltern masculinities of refugee-background men. In G. Stahl & Y. Zhao (Eds.), Migratory men: Place, transnationalism and masculinities (pp. 252–270). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003353232
- Sahin Mencutek, Z., & Nashwan, A. J. (2020). Perceptions about the labor market integration of refugees: Evidences from Syrian refugees in Jordan. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22, 615–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00756-3
- Saligari, S. (2019). Sudanese refugees in Jordan: An intersectional perspective on institutional, racial, and labour discrimination. Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.
- Seeberg, P. (2020). Syrian refugees in Jordan and their integration in the labour market: Jordanian migration diplomacy and EU incentives. Mediterranean Politics, 27, 192–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2020.1758452
- Sévigny, C. (2012, December). Starting from refugees themselves: Towards an institutional ethnography of resettlement. UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/50c88d479.html
- Skran, C., & Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). Old concepts making new history: Refugee self-reliance, livelihoods and the “refugee entrepreneur.” Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez061
- Tete, S. Y. A. (2012). “Any place could be home”: Embedding refugees’ voices into displacement resolution and state refugee policy. Geoforum, 43(1), 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.07.009
- Thomson, M. J. (2018). What documents do not do: Papering persecution and moments of recognition in a congolese refugee camp. Anthropologica, 60(1), 223–235. https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.60.1.t21
- Turner, L. (2019). The politics of labeling refugee men as “vulnerable.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 28(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxz033
- UNHCR. (n.d.). Refugee data finder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=0ri3mG
- UNHCR. (2005, August). Handbook for self-reliance. https://www.unhcr.org/media/handbook-self-reliance-complete-publication
- UNHCR. (2017, March 1). Resilience and self-reliance from a protection and solutions perspective. https://www.unhcr.org/58ca4f827.pdf
- UNHCR. (2021). Resettlement data finder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://rsq.unhcr.org/en/#6wEF
- UNHCR. (2022). Jordan: Populations. https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan#toc-populations
- UNHCR. (2023a, November). Operational update: Jordan. https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan-operational-update-6579
- UNHCR. (2023b). UNHCR resettlement handbook. https://www.unhcr.org/resettlement-handbook/
- United Nations. (2018). Global compact on refugees. UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/media/global-compact-refugees-booklet
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). (2022, June 30). Jordan Humanitarian Fund annual report 2021. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/jordan-humanitarian-fund-annual-report-2021
- Vogel, L. (2000). Domestic labour revisited. Science & Society, 64(2), 151–170. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40403837
- Zetter, R., & Long, K. (2012). Unlocking protracted displacement. Forced Migration Review, 40, 34–37. https://www.fmreview.org/young-and-out-of-place/zetter-long