Refugees and Changing State-Citizen Relations

This chapter summarizes the argument and the practical implications of the findings on Jordan, Lebanon, and Syrian refugees for future movements toward good governance. It details the types of protest that occurred in Jordan and Lebanon and examines the differential outcomes in aid effectiveness and movements in Jordan and Lebanon, and the dynamics of humanitarian aid on state sovereignty. It also points out how the state has become more central in Lebanon and Jordan, while specific services are subcontracted. The chapter talks about the massive aid and loans that are intended to alleviate pressure on refugee-hosting states which triggered more protests while also not helping the refugees. It analyzes refugees through lenses of xenophobia, militarization, and humanitarianism that conceals refugees' and forced migrants' wider roles in catalyzing changes in state-society relations.

Scapegoats or Solutions?

This chapter examines changes in the states hosting Syrian refugees and the citizens' relations to governance in these states. It discusses the broadening of citizen demands on the states amid state austerity policies in the context of mass refugee influx and concomitant aid to the states and the refugees. It also cites that Jordan and Lebanon are among the countries most demographically burdened with refugees in the world. The chapter provides theories that delineate the results of hosting refugees on citizen grievances, demands, and mobilizing. It focuses on popular mobilizing and their effects on political life and challenges state-centric approaches that relegate the grassroots to a politically irrelevant afterthought.

Pushed to the Edge

This chapter recounts how Jordan and Lebanon changed their policies toward the Syrians, becoming more restrictive as they increased their overt scapegoating of the refugees. It analyses the restrictive policies toward Syrians that were interpreted by aid and international donors as signaling the need for more aid in order to prevent Syrians from leaving their host countries and heading to Europe. It also elaborates how the London Compacts traded massive aid, market access, and preferential loans from the international community in return for work permits to the refugees. The chapter explains how Jordan and Lebanon made fiscal changes that generated more protests and turned into systemic indictments of the regimes. It highlights new austerity policies in Lebanon and Jordan that spurred mass protests over taxes, the removal of subsidies, and the numerous continuing grievances over basic goods and services.

From Brothers Inneed to Invaders

This chapter discusses the hostility toward the Syrians and analyses the sentiment in both Jordan and Lebanon that went from sympathy toward the victims of war to active resentment. It mentions populaces that felt threatened demographically and explains why the Syrians received superior goods and services. It also highlights how Lebanon and Jordan blamed their economic and resource problems on the Syrians in narratives that echo common refugee and migrant stereotypes globally. The chapter describes how sympathy waned after the initial honeymoon period of brotherhood when citizens of both Lebanon and Jordan aided the refugees. It examines popular opinion, media, and elite statements about refugees through interviews, press reports, and opinion polls.