Regional Approaches to Displacement in the Middle East

The Middle East is home to a significant number of displaced people including refugees who are under the mandate of the bifurcated International Refugee Regime, that is to say, across the mandates of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According to UNHCR’s planning figures for the Middle East and North Africa for 2022, of a total of 16 million forcibly displaced and stateless people in the region, 12.5 million were internally displaced (78% of the total), while 2.5 million (15% of the total) were refugees (UNHCR, 2022a). All refugees in the region, except for Palestinians, fall under the mandate of UNHCR; in turn, 5.8 million Palestinian refugees are under UNRWA’s mandate, and are consistently excluded from the so-called “global” refugee agency’s statistics

Invisible Refugees and/or Overlapping Refugeedom? Protecting Sahrawis and Palestinians Displaced by the 2011 Libyan Uprising

This article examines the experiences of two North African and Middle Eastern refugee populations (Sahrawis and Palestinians) affected by the 2011 conflict in Libya who have remained largely invisible to the international community. The challenges that they have faced since the outbreak of violence in February 2011, and the nature of international responses to these challenges, highlight a range of interconnected issues on both conceptual and practical dimensions. After outlining the scale and nature of the internal and international displacement arising from the 2011 conflict, and the history of these refugees' presence in Libya, the article explores whether Sahrawis and Palestinians can be categorised and conceptualised as ‘refugees' in Libya, given their ‘voluntary' migration to the country for educational and/or employment purposes. Drawing on a number of historical examples of protection activities by UNHCR for Sahrawi and Palestinian ‘refugee-migrants', the article explores the potential applicability of a framework that highlights ‘overlapping refugeedoms' without negating refugees' agency. Given that neither population has a ‘country of origin' or effective diplomatic protection, the article then explores which state and non-state actors could be considered to be responsible for their protection in this conflict situation. Finally, analysing the ‘solutions' promoted for Sahrawi and Palestinian refugees in this context leads to an assessment of whether such responses can be considered to offer effective protection to these populations. Ultimately, the article examines a range of protection gaps that emerge from these groups' experiences during the 2011 North African uprisings, arguing in favour of a critical assessment of the protection mechanisms in place to support refugees who ‘voluntarily' migrate for economic and educational purposes. Such an evaluation is particularly important given policy-makers' increasing interest in presenting mobility as a ‘fourth durable solution

Gender, religion and humanitarian responses to refugees

Major international agencies including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have moved towards partnering with faith-based actors to support displaced persons. Despite this, concerns – and suspicions – remain about the nature and impact of faith-based responses to displacement, often stemming from negative assumptions about the relationship between religion and gender. Based on her policy brief launched at the UN Refugee Summit in September, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh outlines how we can overcome these often flawed assumptions

Refugiados que acogen a refugiados

Asumir que el desplazamiento “superpuesto” es algo ampliamente extendido supone un punto de partida de cara a reconocer y comprometerse con la voluntad de los refugiados y de sus diversos anfitriones a la hora de ofrecer ayuda y de recibir a las personas desplazadas

‘Travelling fear’ in global context: exploring everyday dynamics of in/security and im/mobility

Aydan Greatrick and Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh put Trump’s recent “Muslim Ban” (and the exceptional responses to it) in context by focusing on the everyday dynamics of exclusion, immobility and insecurity that have long framed the lives of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants

Critical Approaches to Voice and Writing in Displacement

The Refugee Hosts project has demonstrated the important roles that writing and stories play in people’s responses to, and understanding of displacement.i Past stories of both hosting, and of being hosted, are important devices that people draw on and share as they navigate contemporary displacement today. Through critical writing workshops with members of displacement-affected communities in Lebanon and Jordan, the Refugee Hosts project has adopted methodologies which focus on writing, listening and sharing. These methodologies are of value to researchers and practitioners, providing a means of encountering the experiences of people who have been affected by, and are responding to, displacement, and of maintaining space for shared dialogue about different needs, memories, and hopes

Religions and Forced Migration

Over the last two decades, the intersections between religions and migration have increasingly been discussed in humanitarian and development circles. Initially, debates focused on religion as a cause of displacement. Subsequently, academics and practitioners started concentrating on the role of religions and religious networks at different stages of migrants’ experiences. Increasing attention has also been given to faith actors’ engagements in supporting migrants and refugees through material and immaterial resources. In the last five years, migrant and refugee communities have been increasingly acknowledged as being involved in, and leading, responses to migration, including through their religious networks. There are growing efforts to broaden the focus on religion to include non-mainstream traditions, such as traditional beliefs and communities other than Christian and Muslim. Studies on the power dynamics between new and more established migrant and refugee communities, including in terms of gender equity and relations, are becoming more nuanced. In this chapter, we offer an overview of these key research areas and trends within religion and migration scholarship. The chapter is divided into four sections: Religion as a cause of displacement; Religion and experiences of migration and forced displacement; Transnational religion as a resource for migrant, refugee, and hosting communities; and Religion and faith-based responses to displacement

Refugee-Host Relationality

Local responses to displacement do not sit in isolation from one another: instead, they are shaped by diverse overlapping processes and intersecting contexts of protracted displacement. This significantly challenges a view of local responses as being contained within just one municipality, neighbourhood or camp. Rather, an appreciation of how local responses in diverse spaces develop in relation to one another, enables a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the dynamics and processes that shape local responses to displacement. Equally, there is a tendency to view hosts as citizens that provide support to refugees. However, “shifting the gaze” towards a more relational approach recognises the significant role that refugees themselves play as providers of support and assistance, including through processes that can be conceptualised as ‘refugee-refugee humanitarianism’.iv In contexts of protracted displacement, newly arrived refugees will be hosted by established refugee communities displaced from ongoing protracted conflict, as is the case of people arriving from Syria and being hosted by Palestinian refugees in Baddawi refugee camp in North Lebanon. ‘Refugees’ and ‘hosts’ are not always distinct categories of people; refugees may previously have been hosts; and citizens in host countries may have past experiences of both displacement and of hosting. These shared histories of displacement and hosting inform local responses in ways that are under appreciated. Accounting for these relational processes, including through a recognition of ‘refugee-refugee relationality’, ‘overlapping displacement’ and intersecting structural barriers, is vital. This Research Brief offers recommendations to this effect

Engaging with Histories and Narratives of Displacement

In humanitarian contexts, poetry and creative approaches are often side-lined or presented as superfluous to the pressing needs that arise in emergency situations. A short-term emphasis on immediate needs has also led to creative approaches being side-lined, with such approaches often addressing narrative, memory, and history. However, as shown by the Refugee Hosts project’s research with nine local communities responding to displacement in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, creative approaches, such as poetry and writing workshops with communities, enable people to share past and ongoing experiences, and to build and sustain different forms of solidarity in the present and future. Creative approaches can develop insights into historical, political, religious, and communal ways of being that provide important counterweights to short-term decision making. Finding ways to engage with communities through creative approaches helps to make space for the articulation of memories and narratives that better inform interventions in the short and long-term. Creative writing, historical narratives and the arts allow practitioners to better acknowledge the multi-layered, historical, and emotional complexity that exists in displacement contexts and offers approaches that support community dialogue. This Research Brief calls for humanitarian practitioners to meaningfully engage with creative writing, history and the arts when working in displacement-affected contexts

Understanding Local Responses to Displacement

Local communities play key roles in responding to displacement. They are often the first providers of assistance to refugees, offering hospitality, care and different forms of protection. Local responses are often shaped by long histories of displacement, including in urban refugee camps, towns and cities. Local responses also change over time, including as a result of changing international and national politics, policies and programmes. These changes may raise opportunities for local responses to be supported and consolidated, but may also create and reproduce different types of tensions between different people, groups and institutions. Despite all this, humanitarian engagement with local communities has often been limited, favouring vertical and less integrated responses, notwithstanding the ‘Localisation of Aid’ agenda. This Research Brief, based on the Refugee Hosts project’s research in nine neighbourhoods in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, calls for a more transformational and equitable commitment to engagement with local communities responding to displacement. Local communities should be seen as responders in their own right, with capacities, histories and knowledge that needs to be recognised by humanitarian practitioners