The Im/mobilities of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan: Pan-Arabism, ‘Hospitality’ and the Figure of the ‘Refugee’

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of Iraqi refugees in Jordan through the lens of their motility. In doing so, it demonstrates that the motility of Iraqis is largely shaped by pan-Arab ideologies concerning 'hospitality' and the politics surrounding the category of the 'refugee' in Jordan. The intersection of these factors have meant that Iraqis occupy an ambiguous and precarious socio-legal position in Jordan and the populist view in the Kingdom regards them as a politically and socially problematic demographic. Processes demonising Iraqis in Jordan, however, also reflect wider global processes that have pathologised and criminalised -and in the process im-mobilised -the figure of the refugee.

Managing through ad hoc measures: Syrian refugees and the politics of waiting in Lebanon

“…As scholars note, waiting "is socially produced, imbued with geopolitics, and also actively encountered, incorporated and resisted amidst everyday spaces that migrants experience" (Conlon, 2011: 353). Interrogating the concept in an increasingly mobile world alerts us to the power relations inherent in and reproduced through mobility, and the ways in which socioeconomic circumstances are deeply intertwined with it (Mason, 2011). Making people wait or remain still when movement or migration is essential for them is an act of entrenching political subordination.…”

Mapping choice: A critical GIS analysis of English learner enrollment

“…The concept of motility has been proposed as one way to describe the interrelatedness of spatial and social mobility (Kaufman et al, 2004). More specifically, motility is a concept that researchers use to describe how socio-economic factors enable or determine physical mobilities and vice-versa, how physical mobilities influence socio-economic circumstances (Mason, 2011). As such, Kaufman et al ( 2004) theorized motility as a type of capital which, like its social or economic counterparts, can be exchanged for other types of capital and is linked to the societal distribution and maintenance of power (Kaufman et al, 2004).…”

Giving Aid Inside the Home

“…Like many of its neighbors, Jordan is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. Iraqi and later Syrian refugees have been received as "guests" (Achilli 2015;Mason 2011), a choice of words to be understood in the context of repeated displacement of Palestinians to Jordan since 1948, for whom the term "refugee" was long reserved in offi cial discourse (Mason 2011). A recent news article exemplifi es the extent to which the guest discourse has permeated policy and public talk about displacement: "Population stands at around 9.5 million, including 2.9 million guests," a headline of the Jordan Times, Jordan's English daily newspaper, ran in January 2016.…”

“…In the context of the Syrian confl ict, the concept's role as a scale shift er between the local, the national, and the international has gained prominence with academics, humanitarians, and policy actors. Neighboring countries' hospitality for Syrian "guests" has received much praise as an indigenous alternative to the Western human rights-based regime, anchored in mutual cultural and religious traditions (El Abed 2014), the Ottoman legacy of ethnic and religious minority networks (Chatty 2017), Pan-Arab ideology (Mason 2011), and, on the local level, processes of refugee-refugee solidarity in contexts of overlapping displacement (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2016). Critics point out that applauding host states' generosity risks masking their lack of commitment to international refugee law, and coincides with an alarming tendency to downgrade refugee protection worldwide (Crawley and Skleparis 2017).…”

“…So far, critics of refugee hospitality have focused on host states (e.g. Mason 2011) and aid organizations within refugee camps (Bulley 2015) and detention centers (Rozakou 2012). However, the hospitality of humanitarian actors in urban settings has hardly been addressed, a laudable exception being Estella Carpi's study of NGO-sponsored hosting of refugees in a Lebanese border town.…”