Syrian and Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and the Emergent Realities of Return

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…

Refugee Neighbours & Hostipitality

Accounting for the roles of local communities is a key aim of our project, and of the 'Localisation of Aid' agenda more broadly. However, as a result of the mainstream narratives that pervade the literature on conflict-induced displacement, efforts to properly engage with the local have been held back by a failure to fully recognise…

Thinking Through the Concept of ‘Welcoming’

In this piece, Katharine T. Weatherhead reflects on the discursive implications of the term 'welcoming' when used in refugee-related research. In particular, she asks: does the term enable nuanced engagement with displacement as a series of overlapping, relational encounters, in turn disrupting traditional representations that depict refugees as a vulnerable 'burdens', and hosts as active…

CfP: Hospitality and Hostility Towards Migrants: Global Perspectives

We are pleased to share this call for papers on behalf of Dr. Mette Berg (UCL) and Dr. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (PI of Refugee Hosts), who are the editors of the new journal, Migration and Society. This new interdisciplinary journal is committed to critical research that situates migration in a wider societal, historical and geographical context, and for…

Q&A with Yousif M. Qasmiyeh

In this piece, which is a re-posting from the Asymptote blog, Theophilus Kwek interviews the Refugee Hosts writer in residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh about his work, and the themes of displacement, exile and belonging that inform his poetry and writing. Read Yousif's poetry for the Refugee Hosts project here.  Q&A with Yousif M. Qasmiyeh  By…

Refugee-Refugee Relationality: Hospitality and ‘Being With’ Refugees

In a recent piece published by the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJUUR) as part of an Open Access 'Spotlight On' The Urban Refugee "Crisis", Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh highlights the urgency of examining refugees' positions, identities, beliefs and behaviours in relation to other groups of refugees. In essence, she argues that it is necessary to complement…