Making Your Own Weather: Self-Reliance and Working for Resettlement Among Sudanese Refugee Men in Amman, Jordan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40968Keywords:
refugees, resettlement, Jordan, Sudanese, workAbstract
In recent years, refugee response in Jordan has centred on self-reliance, aiming to support individuals in displacement and contain further movement. However, non-Syrian refugees have been largely overlooked. This article explores the relationship between self-reliance and resettlement for Sudanese refugee men in Amman. Drawing on conceptualizations of work beyond paid labour, I show how refugees have pursued resettlement through relational, emotional, physical, and administrative work. I contribute to understandings of how forced migrants work towards long-term solutions to displacement and add to the limited literature on Sudanese displacement in Jordan.
Metrics
References
Ahmed, S. (2014). The cultural politics of emotion (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g09x4q
Anholt, R., & Sinatti, G. (2020). Under the guise of resilience: The EU approach to migration and forced displacement in Jordan and Lebanon. Contemporary Security Policy, 41(2), 311–355 https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2019.1698182
Appadurai, A. (2015). Foreword. In S. Graham & C. McFarlane (Eds.), Infrastructural lives: Urban infrastructure in context (pp. xxii–xxiii). Routledge.
Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD)—Legal Aid. (2015). Putting needs over nationality: Meeting the needs of Somali and Sudanese refugees during the Syrian crisis. https://ardd-jo.org/archived_publication/ardd-la-putting-needs-over-nationality/
Barbelet, V., Hagen-Zanker, J., & Mansour-Ille, D. (2018, February 8). The Jordan Compact: Lessons learnt and implications for future refugee compacts. ODI. https://www.odi.org/publications/11045-jordan-compact-lessons-learnt-and-implications-future-refugee-compacts
Bardelli, N. (2018). The shortcomings of employment as a durable solution. Forced Migration Review, 58, 54–55. https://www.fmreview.org/economies/bardelli
Baslan, D. (2015, December 22). Dwindling hope among Amman’s Sudanese community: Coping with poverty, instability and insecurity in a foreign land. Medium. https://medium.com/@dinabaslan/dwindling-hope-among-amman-s-sudanese-community-eefccce9cd57
Baslan, D., Kvittingen, A., & Perlmann, M. (2017, November). Sheltering in Amman: Sudanese experiences and practices in a challenging urban environment. Mixed Migration Platform. http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/sheltering-in-amman/
Baslan, D., & Leghtas, I. (2018, October 11). We need to help Jordan’s other refugees. Refugees Deeply. https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2018/10/11/we-need-to-help-jordans-other-refugees?fbclid=IwAR3T7teMCDeWKg8dqHaffmn9FY0g8e2mV2Vue3ebxsdGxf_NsNhK9Ei8XYM
Bayat, A. (2013). Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804786331
Betts, A., Omata, N., & Sterck, O. (2020). Self-reliance and social networks: Explaining refugees’ reluctance to relocate from Kakuma to Kalobeyei. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 62–85. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez084
Bradley, M., Milner, J., & Peruniak, B. (2019). Refugees’ roles in resolving displacement and building peace: Beyond beneficiares. Georgetown University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxq90
Brun, C. (2015). Active waiting and changing hopes: Toward a time perspective on protracted displacement. Social Analysis, 59(1), 19–37. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2015.590102
Brun, C., & Shuayb, M. (2020). Exceptional and futureless humanitarian education of Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Prospects for shifting the lens. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 36(2), 20–30. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40717
Caron, C. (2019). Hosting as shelter during displacement: Considerations for research and practice. Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 4, Article 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41018-019-0052-0
Chimni, B. S. (2004). From resettlement to involuntary repatriation: Towards a critical history of durable solutions to refugee problems. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 23(3), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/23.3.55
Clark-Kazak, C., & Thomson, M. J. (2019). Refugees’ roles in resettlement from Uganda and Tanzania: Agency, intersectionality, and relationships. In M. Bradley, J. Milner, & B. Peruniak (Eds.), Refugees’ roles in resolving displacement and building peace: Beyond beneficiaries (pp. 211–228). Georgetown University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxq90.16
Crawford, N., Cosgrave, J., Haysom, S., & Walicki, N. (2015, September). Protracted displacement: Uncertain paths to self-reliance in exile. Overseas Development Institute. https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/9851.pdf
Crisp, J. (2016, October). An end to exile? Refugee initiative and the search for durable solutions. In R. Jolly & M. Askwith (Eds.), Evidence report 205: The UN at 70, and the UK (pp. 119–125). Institute of Development Studies. https://bafuncs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UNat70_OnlineReport.pdf
Davis, R., Taylor, A., Todman, W., & Murphy, E. (2016). Sudanese and Somali refugees in Jordan: Hierarchies of aid in protracted displacement crises. Middle East Report, 279, 1–5. https://merip.org/2016/09/sudanese-and-somali-refugees-in-jordan/
Drotbohm, H. (2021). “Not a cozy dwelling”: Exploring aspirational anxieties and the politics of displacement in São Paulo’s squats. Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, 12(3), 354–367. https://doi.org/10.1353/hum.2021.0033
Dryden-Peterson, S., Adelman, E., Bellino, M. J., & Chopra, V. (2019). The purposes of refugee education: Policy and practice of including refugees in national education systems. Sociology of Education, 92(4), 346–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040719863054
Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). Warriors of self-reliance: The instrumentalization of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 143–166. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez062
Easton-Calabria, E., & Omata, N. (2018). Panacea for the refugee crisis? Rethinking the promotion of “self-reliance” for refugees. Third World Quarterly, 39(8), 1458–1474. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1458301
El-Shaarawi, N. (2015). Living an uncertain future: Temporality, uncertainty, and well-being among Iraqi refugees in Egypt. Social Analysis, 59(1), 38–56. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2015.590103
Fakhoury, T., & Stel, N. (2022). EU engagement with contested refugee returns in Lebanon: The aftermath of resilience. Geopolitics, 28(3), 1007–1032. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2022.2025779
Gale, L. A. (2008). The invisible refugee camp: Durable solutions for Boreah “residuals” in Guinea. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(4), 537–552. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fen040
Gill, N. (2018). The suppression of welcome. Fennia, 196(1), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.70040
Gordon, J. (2021). The international governance of refugee work: Reflections on the Jordan compact. Global Public Policy and Governance, 1, 239–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-021-00019-6
Government of Jordan. (2016). The Jordan Compact: A new holistic approach between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the international community to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/jordan-compact-new-holistic-approach-between-hashemite-kingdom-jordan-and
Gowayed, H. (2019). Diverging by gender: Syrian refugees’ divisions of labor and formation of human capital in the United States. Gender and Society, 33(2), 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243218819753
Harrell-Bond, B. E. (1986). Imposing aid: Emergency assistance to refugees. Oxford University Press.
Human Rights Watch. (2015, December 16). Jordan: Deporting Sudanese asylum seekers. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/16/jordan-deporting-sudanese-asylum-seekers
Human Rights Watch. (2020). Jordan: Events of 2019. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/jordan#
Hyndman, J. (2000). Managing displacement: Refugees and the politics of humanitarianism. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttscf9
Janmyr, M. (2021). Sudanese refugees and the “Syrian refugee response” in Lebanon: Racialised hierarchies, processes of invisibilisation, and resistance. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 41(1), 131–156.. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdab012
Jansen, B. J. (2008). Between vulnerability and assertiveness: Negotiating resettlement in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. African Affairs, 107(429), 569–587. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adn044
Johnston, R., Baslan, D., & Kvittingen, A. (2019). Realizing the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Jordan from countries other than Syria, with a focus on Yemenis and Sudanese. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/realizing-rights-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-jordan-countries-other-syria-focus
Jordan, Z. (2020). Everyday humanitarians: Refugee hosting in protracted urban displacement in Amman, Jordan [PhD thesis, Oxford Brookes University]. RADAR. https://doi.org/10.24384/7jtm-rj84
Jordan, Z. (2022). “The world we share”: Everyday relations and the political consequences of refugee-refugee hosting in Amman, Jordan. Citizenship Studies, 26(6), 868–884. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2022.2103976
Jordan, Z. (2023). Refugee–refugee hosting as home in protracted urban displacement: Sudanese refugee men in Amman, Jordan. In S. Ilcan, V. Squire, Y. Shamma, & H. Underhill (Eds.), Migration, culture and identity: Making home away (pp. 31–53). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12085-5_3
Kelberer, V. (2017). Negotiating crisis: International aid and refugee policy in Jordan. Middle East Policy, 24(4) 148–165. https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12313
Kibreab, G. (1989). Local settlements in Africa: A misconceived option? Journal of Refugee Studies, 2(4), 468–490. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/2.4.468
Kvittingen, A., Valenta, M., Tabbara, H., Baslan, D., & Berg, B. (2019). The conditions and migratory aspirations of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. Journal of Refugee Studies, 32(1), 106–124. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fey015
Leeson, K., Bhandari, P. B., Myers, A., & Buscher, D. (2020). Measuring the self-reliance of refugees. Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 86–105. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez076
Lenner, K. (2020). “Biting our tongues”: Policy legacies and memories in the making of the Syrian refugee response in Jordan. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 39(3), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdaa005
Lenner, K., & Turner, L. (2019). Making refugees work? The politics of integrating Syrian refugees into the labor market in Jordan. Middle East Critique, 28(1), 65–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2018.1462601
Locher, M. A., & Watts, R. J. (2008). Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behaviour. In D. Bousfield & M. A. Locher (Eds.), Impoliteness in language: Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice (pp. 77–100). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208344.2.77
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). (2017, November). On the basis of nationality: Access to assistance for Iraq and other asylum-seekers and refugees in Jordan. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/basis-nationality-access-assistance-iraqi-and-other-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-jordan
Mixed Migration Platform (MMP). (2017a, April). Displaced minorities—Part I: Migration and displacement trends of Somali, Sudanese and Yemeni refugees and other migrants in Jordan. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/displaced-minorities-part-i-migration-and-displacement-trends-somali-sudanese-and
Mixed Migration Platform (MMP). (2017b, April). Displaced minorities—Part II: Experiences and needs of Somali, Sudanese and Yemeni refugees and other migrants in Jordan. http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/displaced-minorities-part-ii/
Monforte, P. (2021). Protestors’ emotional work in contexts of marginalisation: The emancipation of “forced migrants” in Germany. Antipode, 53(2), 445–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12668
Morris, J. (2020). Extractive landscapes: The case of the Jordan refugee compact. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 36(1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40623
Omata, N. (2019). “Over-researched” and “under-researched” refugees. Forced Migration Review, 61, 15–18. https://www.fmreview.org/ethics/omata
Ozkul, D., & Jarrous, R. (2021). How do refugees navigate the UNHCR’s bureaucracy? The role of rumours in accessing humanitarian aid and resettlement. Third World Quarterly, 42(10), 2247–2264. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1928487
Pascucci, E. (2017). Community infrastructures: Shelter, self-reliance and polymorphic borders in urban refugee governance. Territory, Politics, Governance, 5(3), 332–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2017.1297252
Pascucci, E. (2018). Who welcomes? The geographies of refugee aid as care work—Commentary to Gill. Fennia, 196(2), 236–238. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.76588
Rung, D. L., Hetz, H., & Radford, D. (2023). “I came to Australia with very big hope, big wishes, big goals”: Applying “mobility work” and “resettlement work” to explore the emotional labour and subaltern masculinities of refugee-background men. In G. Stahl & Y. Zhao (Eds.), Migratory men: Place, transnationalism and masculinities (pp. 252–270). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003353232
Sahin Mencutek, Z., & Nashwan, A. J. (2020). Perceptions about the labor market integration of refugees: Evidences from Syrian refugees in Jordan. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22, 615–633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00756-3
Saligari, S. (2019). Sudanese refugees in Jordan: An intersectional perspective on institutional, racial, and labour discrimination. Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.
Seeberg, P. (2020). Syrian refugees in Jordan and their integration in the labour market: Jordanian migration diplomacy and EU incentives. Mediterranean Politics, 27, 192–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2020.1758452
Sévigny, C. (2012, December). Starting from refugees themselves: Towards an institutional ethnography of resettlement. UNHCR. http://www.unhcr.org/50c88d479.html
Skran, C., & Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). Old concepts making new history: Refugee self-reliance, livelihoods and the “refugee entrepreneur.” Journal of Refugee Studies, 33(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez061
Tete, S. Y. A. (2012). “Any place could be home”: Embedding refugees’ voices into displacement resolution and state refugee policy. Geoforum, 43(1), 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.07.009
Thomson, M. J. (2018). What documents do not do: Papering persecution and moments of recognition in a congolese refugee camp. Anthropologica, 60(1), 223–235. https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.60.1.t21
Turner, L. (2019). The politics of labeling refugee men as “vulnerable.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 28(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxz033
UNHCR. (n.d.). Refugee data finder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=0ri3mG
UNHCR. (2005, August). Handbook for self-reliance. https://www.unhcr.org/media/handbook-self-reliance-complete-publication
UNHCR. (2017, March 1). Resilience and self-reliance from a protection and solutions perspective. https://www.unhcr.org/58ca4f827.pdf
UNHCR. (2021). Resettlement data finder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://rsq.unhcr.org/en/#6wEF
UNHCR. (2022). Jordan: Populations. https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan#toc-populations
UNHCR. (2023a, November). Operational update: Jordan. https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan-operational-update-6579
UNHCR. (2023b). UNHCR resettlement handbook. https://www.unhcr.org/resettlement-handbook/
United Nations. (2018). Global compact on refugees. UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/media/global-compact-refugees-booklet
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). (2022, June 30). Jordan Humanitarian Fund annual report 2021. https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/jordan-humanitarian-fund-annual-report-2021
Vogel, L. (2000). Domestic labour revisited. Science & Society, 64(2), 151–170. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40403837
Zetter, R., & Long, K. (2012). Unlocking protracted displacement. Forced Migration Review, 40, 34–37. https://www.fmreview.org/young-and-out-of-place/zetter-long
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Zoë Jordan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.
