This paper was presented at a workshop on ‘The Long-term Challenges of Forced Migration: Local and Regional Perspectives from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq’ organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in June 2016. It was published as part of a collected papers volume available in English and Arabic

Khoury, Rana B.

LSE Research Online

9/21/2016Refugees’ Contentious Politics and the Case of SyrianActivists in Jordanblogs.lse.ac.uk /mec/2016/09/21/refugees-contentious-politics-and-the-case-of-syrian-activists-in-jordan/by Rana B. Khoury#LSERefugeesThis paper was presented at a workshop on ‘The Long-term Challenges of Forced Migration: Local and RegionalPerspectives from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq’ organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in June 2016. It waspublished as part of a collected papers volume available in English and Arabic.Anas, artist and resident of the Talbieh camp, © Omar Chatriwala, 2011.In the wake of multiple civil wars throughout the 1990s, analysts came to associate cross-border warfare and thespread of civil wars with refugee violence. In the last decade of massive displacement from Syria and Iraq, activismamong refugees is evident, but violence much less so. As conflicts in the Middle East bring the worldwide toll ofrefugees to record highs, can our conceptualisations account for different types of refugee-related politics? I proposea unified conceptual framework that foregrounds the displaced as claim-makers excluded from formal politics, andgenerates types of refugee contention along key dimensions. A description of one type – activism – among Syriansin Jordan illustrates this form of politics and suggests how policymakers can approach the agency of refugees.The analytical divide that has long existed between those who view refugees as purveyors of violence, and thosewho view refugees as subjects of violence, is increasingly overcome by our recognition of the displaced as politicalagents, even if refugee flows constitute legitimate security threats. Nevertheless, the concepts invoked to capturethese agential potentialities are often made to travel too far, their meanings broadened and their precision reduced.For instance, scholars have used the term ‘social movements’ to describe efforts to acquire healthcare andeducation, rather than mass episodes of contention. Similarly, cases of what are described as ‘refugee warriors’,include everything from local defence units to genocidaires.1/3Such conceptual stretching has occurred in the absence of a unified approach to replace the victim/warriorparadigms. I propose a new framework – contentious politics – that accounts for refugee agency but also fordisparities in power between them and powerful authorities. Contention is the collective actions of claim-makers onsystems of authority through non-institutional channels. In the first instance, refugees are outside institutionalchannels because their relationship with the state has been severed and they are deprived of the associatedprotections of citizenship. Although the international refugee regime pursues protection for refugees, in fact manyremain excluded from formal politics due to the vast variation in legal protection afforded by countries of first asylumand the elusiveness of the three durable solutions – repatriation, resettlement and local integration – the corollary ofwhich is protracted situations, of which there were 33 in 2014 accounting for nearly half of refugees worldwide.Accordingly, I propose a descriptive typology of refugees’ contentious behaviour that takes as its starting pointrefugees as claim-makers in exclusion. …continue readingDownload the paper in English | Download the paper in ArabicRana B. Khoury is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University. She tweets at @rbkhoury.Other papers in the seriesSyrian Refugees in Lebanon: A Turning Point?Mireille GirardSyrian Refugees and the Kurdistan Region of IraqHayder Mustafa SaaidIraqi and Syrian Refugees in Jordan Adjusting to Displacement: Comparing their Expectations towardsUNHCR and their Capacities to use their Educational AssetsGéraldine ChatelardThe Informal Adaptive Mechanisms among Syrian Refugees and Marginalised Host Communities in LebanonNasser Yassin & Jana ChammaaHost State Responsibility and Capacity in Egypt, Morocco and TurkeyKelsey NormanRelations Between UNHCR and Arab Governments: Memoranda of Understanding in Lebanon and JordanGhida FrangiehSyrian Refugee or Stateless Refugee: The Challenges of Statelessness in ExileZahra AlbaraziGendered Vulnerability and Forced Conscription in the War in SyriaRochelle DavisThe Syrian Humanitarian Disaster: Understanding Perceptions and Aspirations in Jordan, Lebanon andTurkeyDawn ChattyThe Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Global and Regional PerspectiveFrançois Reybet-DegatCopyright © 2014 London School of Economics and Political Science2/33/3

Refugees’ contentious politics and the case of Syrian activists in Jordan

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