Contrasting Trajectories of Incorporation: Refugee Integration and the Global South

Abstract

While the challenges of making a home in a foreign country are not unique to refugees in the Global South, their trajectories of integration in Southern host states often diverge from descriptions in the canonical literature on immigrant integration. What constitutes integration when newcomers share a language, cultural similarities, religious practices, and family ties with the receiving society? Drawing on ethnographic and interview data with Syrian refugees in Jordan, this article illustrates (a) the complexities that surface when refugees share similarities with members of the receiving community, (b) emerging axes of difference-making, and (c) distinct mechanisms linking humanitarian intervention with the facilitation and impediment of integration.

Keywords:

• refugees
• integration
• humanitarianism
• Jordan
• Global South

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the editors of this special issue, Dalia Abdelhady and Ov Cristian Norocel, as well as anonymous reviewers. She is also grateful to Molly Fee, David Scott FitzGerald, Rana B. Khoury, Jane Lilly López, David Marcus, and Lama Mourad—all of whom offered invaluable feedback during the drafting of this article.