The civil war in Syria has caused a mass influx of Syrian refugees into other countries throughout the region and beyond. Jordan has received a large share of Syrian refugees, currently totaling to the alarming number of 1.2 mln people. Addressing the need of Syrian refugees has drained the resources of Jordanian government and has had its substantial impact on Jordanian society overall. In an effort to better understand the humanitarian, political, economic, sociocultural and environmental challenges to Jordan and its government, this study has developed a comprehensive analytical framework. The comprehensive analytical framework has been developed based on the system thinking approach and the systematic review of gray literature and peer-reviewed articles. This framework provides a better capacity to discover the potential consequences of a massive refugee influx and covers the vital factors based on the realistic criteria regarding the burden of refugees on the formulation of policies. The analytical framework is applied to Jordan as the receiving state since the influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan in 2011 to 2015 and it potentially could be used as a comparative analytical tool for other receiving states.

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The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how the Jordanian government has responded and continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It utilizes the interpretive policy analysis approach through document analysis. The analysis showed that Jordan created social protection policies to assist people who lost their jobs or whose work was suspended due to the coronavirus. The economic policies build solidarity and facilitate the private sector’s recovery. The health care measures firmly applied included lockdown, wearing masks, and restrictions on gatherings and public events. Jordan uses hard power and imposes sanctions on any violation that threatens the lives of others.

The massive influx of 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Jordan has increased the demand for public services. The study aims to investigate the impact of Syrian refugees on Jordanian public expenditure, and is based on regional focus. It assesses the structural impact of Syrian refugees on total public expenditure, including current public and capital expenditure, and investigates their impact on the public health and education sectors. Regression analysis has been utilized to determine how the influx of Syrian refugees has affected Jordanian public spending. The results suggest both that total public expenditure has increased due to the influx of Syrian refugees and that current public expenditure has increased at the expense of capital spending. Moreover, the results suggest that the presence of Syrian refugees positively affects total health care expenditure but negatively affects capital expenditure, and that public education expenditure has increased due to their presence.

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