https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9116-6019
![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Critical feminist scholars of conflict and displacement have demonstrated that “womenandchildren” (Enloe 1993) have become an uncontroversial object of humanitarian concern in these contexts (Carpenter 2003; Hyndman and Giles 2011). Yet very little scholarly work has attempted to understand the position of refugee men as a demographic within humanitarianism. Through an analysis of the Syria refugee response in Jordan, this article investigates how humanitarian workers relate to refugee men and think about refugee masculinities. It argues that refugee men have an uncertain position as objects of humanitarian care. Seeing refugee men as objects of humanitarian care would disrupt prevailing humanitarian understandings of refugeehood as a feminized subject position and of gender work as work that “helps women” (Cornwall 2007; Johnson 2011). It would furthermore challenge prevailing binary visions of refugee men as agential, political actors, and refugee women as in need of “empowerment” through the implementation of technocratic programming. In the context of the Syria refugee response, these gendered and racialized understandings of refugee men and masculinities are mediated by particular conceptions of “Arabness.” This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews with humanitarian workers and Syrian refugees, which was undertaken in Jordan in 2015–2016.
ملخص
أثبتت الدراسات النسوية النقدية لقضايا النزوح والصراعات أن “النساؤلأطفال ” (Enloe 1993) أصبحوا من ملسلّمات الشواغل الإنسانية في سياقات هذه القضايا (Carpenter 2003; Hyndman and Giles 2011). فيما هناك عدد قليل من الدراسات التي سعت إلى فهم مكانة الرجال اللاجئين كشريحة بشرية ضمن العمل الإنساني . تستقصي هذه المقالة، من خلال تحليل العمل الإنساني مع اللاجئين السوريين في الأردن، كيفية تعامل وفهم المشتغلين بالقطاع الإنساني للرجال اللاجئين ورجولاتهم . تدلل المقالة بأن مكانة الرجال اللاجئين، بوصفهم أهدافا للرعاية الإنسانية، هي مكانة غير مؤكدة. إن اعتبار الرجال اللاجئين أهدافا للرعاية الإنسانية من شأنه أن يخلخل التصورات السائدة في القطاع الإنساني لحالة اللجوء كحالة تم تأنيثها وللعمل الجندري كعمل يسعى لـ “مساعدة المرأة” (Cornwall 2007; Johnson 2011). كما أن هذا الاعتبار من شأنه أن يتحدى الرؤى الثنائية السائدة التي ترى الرجال اللاجئين كذوي وكالة وكفاعلين سياسيين بينما ترى النساء اللاجئات كمحتاجات لـ “التمكين "، من خلال تنفيذ البرامج التكنوقراطية . إن هذه التصورات، التي تُقرن معها العرقية والنوع الاجتماعي، للرجال اللاجئين والرجولات في سياق التعامل مع اللجوء السوري تشكلها مفاهيم محددة لـ“عروبة” هؤلاء السوريين . يتكئ هذا البحث على العمل الميداني الإثنوغرافي والمقابلات النوعية التي تم اجراؤها في الأردن بين 2015 و2016 مع العاملين في القطاع الإنساني ومع اللاجئين السوريين .
Zusammenfassung
Kritische feministische Wissenschaftler*innen haben im Kontext von Konflikt und Flucht gezeigt wie “FrauenundKinder” (Enloe Citation1993) zu einem unkontroversen Objekt humanitären Interesses geworden sind (Carpenter Citation2003; Hyndman and Giles Citation2011). Jedoch setzt sich nur wenig akademische Forschung mit der Position geflüchteter Männer innerhalb humanitärer Arbeit auseinander. Durch eine Analyse der humanitären Reaktion auf syrische Geflüchtete in Jordanien untersucht dieser Artikel, in welcher Beziehung humanitäre Helfer*innen zu geflüchteten Männern stehen, und wie sie deren Maskulinitäten verstehen. Es wird argumentiert, dass geflüchtete Männer eine unklare Position als Objekte humanitärer Hilfe innehaben. Ein Verständnis von geflüchteten Männern als Objekte humanitärer Hilfe würde bedeuten, vorherrschende humanitäre Verständnisse des Flüchtlingsstatus aufzubrechen. Feminisierte Subjektpositionen und Genderarbeit als Arbeit, die „Frauen hilft” (Cornwall Citation2007; Johnson Citation2011), bilden diese vorherrschenden Verständnisse. Weiterhin würde diese Perspektive bestehende binäre Sichtweisen anfechten, die geflüchtete Männer als handlungsmächtige, politische Akteure darstellen. Geflüchteten Frauen hingegen soll durch technokratische “Empowerment-Programme” aus ihrer Schutz- und Hilfsbedürftigkeit geholfen werden. Diese gegenderten und rassifizierten Verständnisse werden durch spezifische Konzeptionen dessen, was es bedeutet, “ein*e Araber*in zu sein”, verhandelt. Dieser Artikel basiert auf ethnographischer Feldforschung und qualitativen Interviews mit humanitären Helfer*innen und syrischen Geflüchteten in Jordanien zwischen 2015–2016.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Studies Association meeting in San Francisco in April 2018. I am very grateful to my fellow panelist Thais Bessa, who encouraged me to submit the paper to the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies section Graduate Student Paper Prize, which it subsequently won. I received very constructive feedback and encouragement from the competition’s judges – María Martín de Almagro, Shine Choi, Catherine Eschle, and Theresa de Langis – as I did from three anonymous reviewers. I would like to extend my thanks to ARDD, the NGO with which I worked in Jordan; to all of my interviewees; and to my colleagues Dilshad Muhammad, Benjamin Schuetze, Carla Tiefenbacher, and Cita Wetterich for their assistance in translating the abstract. Finally, my thanks go to Laleh Khalili for her feedback on the ideas contained in this article, and her support and encouragement as I pursued them.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Lewis Turner is a Senior Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, Germany. His research focuses on the humanitarian response for Syrian refugees in the Middle East, and explores questions of gender, race, encampment, and labor markets. He is the winner of the 2019 Shirin M. Rai Dissertation Prize in International Relations, awarded by the Political Studies Association, and the 2019 Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize, awarded by the British International Studies Association. His work on the refugee response has appeared in journals including Mediterranean Politics and Middle East Critique.
ORCID
Lewis Turner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9116-6019
Notes
1 Fieldnotes, Amman, February 20, 2016.
2 I use this term to refer to the collectivity of United Nations agencies, international organizations, and international and Jordanian NGOs that were working under the banner of the “refugee response.”
3 All population figures for Syrian refugees, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the UNHCR Syria Refugee Response Inter-Agency Information Sharing Portal. Available at: http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=107.
4 In my transliteration of Arabic terms, I have followed the guidelines of the International Journal of Middle East Studies, while omitting diacritic marks, and using single quotation marks for ʿayn and hamza.
5 Humanitarian statistics typically do not recognize or record other genders.
6 Fieldnotes, Amman, October 1, 2015.
7 Interview with former NGO worker in Za‘tari, via Skype, December 8, 2015.
8 Interview with women’s empowerment project manager, Amman, March 28, 2016; fieldnotes, Amman, December 12, 2015.
9 Fieldnotes, Amman, September 16, 2015 and March 28, 2016.
10 Fieldnotes, Amman, May 18, 2016.
11 Fieldnotes, Amman, September 6, 2015 and February 20, 2016.
12 Interview with former NGO worker in Za‘tari, via Skype, December 8, 2015; fieldnotes, Amman, January 28 and June 12, 2016.
13 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, July 21 and 27, August 1, 2016.
14 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, July 21, 2016.
15 Interview with former NGO worker in Za’tari, via Skype, December 8, 2015.
16 Fieldnotes, Amman, January 28, 2016.
17 Fieldnotes, Amman, February 12, 2016 and February 20, 2016.
18 Interview with Curt Rhodes, Amman, May 19, 2016.
19 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, July 21 and 27, 2016; Mafraq, May 26, 2016; interviews with Syrian refugee men living in Za‘tari, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, August 1, 2016.
20 Fieldnotes, Amman, June 9, 2016.
21 Interview with Jordanian women’s rights activist, Amman, December 5, 2015.
22 Fieldnotes, Amman, February 20, 2016.
23 Interview with former UNHCR worker in Za’tari, via Skype, February 6, 2016.
24 Interview with Ruba Abu-Taleb, Health Sector Gender Focal Point, Amman, June 15, 2016.
25 Interview with Suhail Abualsameed, Amman, May 18, 2016.
26 Interview with NGO worker, Amman, October 16, 2015.
27 Interview with SGBV specialist, Amman, November 30, 2015.
28 Interview with SGBV specialist, Amman, July 4, 2016.
29 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, August 1, 2016.
30 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, July 27, 2016.
31 Fieldnotes, Za‘tari Refugee Camp, July 27, 2016.
32 Interview with NGO worker, Amman, October 16, 2015.
33 Fieldnotes, Amman, January 17, 2016.
34 Fieldnotes, Amman, April 9, 2016.
35 Fieldnotes, Karak, June 13, 2016.
36 Interview with humanitarian worker at UN agency, Amman, June 1, 2016; similar sentiments were expressed in interviews with Lina Darras, Psychosocial Support Unit Manager, ARDD, Amman, June 9, 2016; Jared Kohler, photographer formerly contracted to UNHCR Jordan, Amman, March 28, 2016.
37 Interviews with Curt Rhodes, Amman, May 19, 2016; resettlement officer, Amman, April 11, 2016; women’s empowerment project manager, Amman, March 28, 2016.
38 Interview with former NGO worker in Za‘tari, via Skype, December 8, 2015.