Local Community Experiences of Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey
How and why does religion matter in response to forced migration? On Friday 10th May 2019 the Refugee Hosts’ team co-convened a workshop with colleagues from Yale, as part of our British Council-funded Bridging Voices project, to examine the role of religion in forced displacement. The Bridging Voices project, and our recent workshop, brings our Refugee Hosts…
Throughout our research in Lebanon and Jordan, the Refugee Hosts project has been tracing how, why and with what effect the residents of diverse neighbourhoods have been responding to the arrival and presence of refugees from Syria. In her latest contribution to our Reflections from the Field Series, Refugee Hosts PI Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh draws…
'The 'politics of exhaustion', the continual denial of living space, serves to deny refugees’ physical and psychological wellbeing. In this piece, Frances Timberlake compares three recent temporary living spaces for refugees in Grande Synthe, Northern France. It analyses these temporary spaces based on the experiences of women who live(d) in them and reflects on ownership and…
This piece problematizes dominant conceptualisations of refugees in Jordan both as passive victims dependent on aid and as migrants who are ‘interchangeable’ within the Jordanian labour market. Specifically, Aaron Steinberg examines and problematizes the impact of the Jordan Compact, an international agreement ostensibly providing paths to employment for Syrian refugees in Jordan. However, as Steinberg…
Who is it that we choose to see and who is‘unseen’? How can we think and respond differently to the world around us? In this piece Dom Davies adds to his series of blogs on Refugee Hosts exploring our emotional, political, cultural and social responses to the architecture and geography of border regimes, and to those…
People affected by forced displacement and humanitarian disasters often consider that their psychosocial wellbeing and spiritual needs are as significant as their physical survival. Through supporting mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, religious communities, narratives, beliefs and practices can play an important role in supporting the abilities of individuals and communities to manage trauma and crises.…
How do different refugees living in protracted displacement imagine and negotiate processes of resettlement, one of the ‘durable solutions’ supposedly available for refugees (the others being ‘local integration’ and ‘repatriation’)? As explored in this piece by Dr Marcia Vera Espinoza, narratives of resettlement are used as tools of power, resistance and hope by and for…
Is private sponsorship a sustainable policy option for the resettlement of refugees? In this piece Hannah Collins compares government-led resettlement programmes and private community sponsorship schemes (CSS) for displaced Syrian families resettled in the UK. Based on interviews with both host communities and Syrian families, Hannah reviews the schemes and examines both the positive aspects…
The Third Voice and Third Eye in our Photo-Poetic Reflections by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh (University of Oxford) and Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Refugee Hosts) A shared surname both reflects and itself has produced diverse forms of creative intimacies in a range of research and non-research encounters. In a series of photo-poetic reflections published as part of…
Despite international support for the 'Localisation of Aid' Agenda, working with 'the local' remains not only challenging, but also frustrating for many international organisations. As Kathleen Rutledge explains in this piece, this frustration stems from a variety of sources, from a sense that the local is frequently 'less professional', to a degree of mistrust about…
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