‘The displacement virus is much stronger than the coronavirus’: Reflections from Burj el-Barajneh and Baqa’a Camps in Lebanon and Jordan

What roles do communal solidarity and sociality play in spaces such as the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic? This question is examined by Samar Maqusi, who draws on conversations with camp residents Abu Mohammad and Abu Ahmad, to reflect on the 'socially conscious' creativity developing and responding to the pandemic.…

Yousif M. Qasmiyeh at the World Conference on Statelessness

On the 28th and 29th of June 2019, Refugee Hosts' Writer in Residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, will be contributing to the World Conference on Statelessness in The Hague. In addition to speaking and reading his poetry at the panel on 'Citizenship in Unrecognised States' on 28th of June, Yousif will be participating in a series…

Sustaining protracted displacements: A brief history of labor policy for Jordan’s refugees

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…

Expectations and the Politics of Resettlement: Colombian and Palestinian refugees in Chile and Brazil

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…