Local Community Experiences of Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey
On the 3 November 2022 the UCL-Migration Research Unit at the Department of Geography published a major report on ‘Development Approaches to Forced Displacement from Syria in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.’ The report, led by Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, presents the findings of a state-of-the-art literature review of over 260 sources published between 2016–2021, synthesising existing…
In this post Marta Niccolai provides a narrated presentation of her contribution to the recently published Refuge in a Moving World Open Access volume edited by Refugee Hosts PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. Her chapter, 'Theatre and/as solidarity: Putting yourself in the shoes of a refugee through performance,” focuses on Teatro di Nascosto or Hidden Theatre,…
This blog post is an extract from Zeynep Sahin’s book ‘Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East’ published in December 2018. The book examines the patterns of legal, political and institutional responses to large-scale Syrian forced migration and how Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, three of the world’s top refugee hosting countries, responded to…
‘The last thing they needed – I assumed – was one more researcher who wanted to ask them questions for an hour of their precious time.’ Following the ultimatum issued by Turkish authorities to unregistered Syrian refugees in Istanbul to leave the city within one month, Hanna Schneider reflects on the ethical and practical considerations…
Objective Enough to Tell the Truth This presentation was given by Dima Hamadmad at the Refugee Hosts International Conference, Without Exception: The Politics and Poetics of Local Responses to Displacement, Dima's presentation examines the importance of language within academic research and the ethics of using dominant narratives, often perceived as objective, but that can decontextualize and ignore…
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…
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…
On Monday, 4th February, Refugee Hosts' writer-in-residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, will facilitate a translation workshop focusing on contemporary Arabic poetry produced by Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees as part of the Refugee Hosts' creative writing workshops convened by Prof. Lyndsey Stonebridge and Yousif in Lebanon (Baddawi Camp and Hamra) and Jordan (Jerash and Al-Zarqa) in 2018. Held as part of the Oxford Comparative Criticism Translation (OCCT) Discussion Group…
Marking the launch of the inaugural issue of the Migration and Society journal, in this piece Yousif M. Qasmiyeh (Refugee Hosts' Writer in Residence and Creative Encounters Editor of the new journal) sets out one of the aims of the journals' Creative Encounters section; to problematise the notion of voice. The piece also presents five poems…
For displacement-affected communities, ideas of return rest on a set of hopes and identities that are frustrated by geopolitical realities. In this piece, Helen Adams explores how long-term coping strategies are inhibited by frequently-obstructed relationships to place amongst refugee communities affected by the Syrian crisis in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. These communities are left to…
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