Explaining the (Non-)Encampment of Syrian Refugees: Security, Class and the Labour Market in Lebanon and Jordan

Abstract

In Lebanon and Jordan the (non-)encampment of Syrian refugees is serving states’ labour market goals. The Lebanese economy ‘requires’ large numbers of non-encamped low-wage Syrian workers, but the Jordanian regime assists its Transjordanian support base by restricting poor Syrians’ access to the labour market through encampment. While acknowledging the importance of both states’ differing historical experiences hosting refugees, and the security and budgetary motivations for policies of (non-)encampment, this article uses a critical political economy analysis of economic and labour market statistics to dislodge the centrality of the security discourses that increasingly inform discussions of refugee populations and the policies directed towards them. It demonstrates that the camp is not only a space of humanitarianism or a fertile ground for armed militancy, but a tool through which states spatially segregate those refugees, of certain socio-economic classes, whom they deem surplus to labour market requirements.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Rachel Diamond, Pamela G. Faber, Jessy Nassar, Mathew Shearman, Mathilde Zederman and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on previous drafts, and Laleh Khalili, for her invaluable guidance and encouragement.

Disclosure Statement

I have no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct applications of my research.

Notes

^1. In this article, the term ‘refugee’ is used not only to refer to those who meet the legal definition of refugee found in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereafter 1951 convention), but also to those who have fled generalized violence.

^2. All population figures for Syrian refugees are from UNHCR’s online Inter-Agency Information Sharing Portal: http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

^3. The term ‘Transjordanian’, or ‘East Banker’, denotes those Jordanian citizens not of Palestinian origin.

Additional information

Funding

This article is based on research initially undertaken for an MSc dissertation at SOAS, University of London, and was supported by a Standard Chartered Scholarship.