MEDITERRANEAN CITY - TO - CITY MIGRATION

CITY CASE STUDY AMMAN

SOCIAL COHESION IN BADR NAZZAL: BRINGING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND REFUGEES TOGETHER

SPACES OF ENCOUNTER SOCIAL NETWORKING PROGRAMME

SYRIAN REFUGEES GREEN SPACES

VIENNA SOCIAL COHESION

LYON TURIN

MADRID RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

LISBON

TUNIS

BEIRUT

TANGIER AMMAN

Implemented by This case study was developed in the Additionally the project has sought to nur- framework of the Mediterranean City-to- ture a peer-to-peer dialogue and mutual City Migration Project (MC2CM), a project learning on specific urban challenges such coordinated by ICMPD and funded by the as social cohesion, intercultural dialogue, European Union and the Swiss Agency for employment and provision of basic services Development and Cooperation. The MC2CM for migrants, among others. This case study project has been working since 2015 with was selected by the Municipality of Amman Amman, Beirut, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Tan- in order to showcase a practice that contrib- giers, Tunis, Turin and Vienna to increase utes to social inclusion of migrants at the the knowledge base on urban migration. local level.

AMMAN’S BADR NAZZAL DISTRICT USES SPACES OF ENCOUNTER AND SOCIAL NETWORKING TO BUILD SOCIAL COHESION BETWEEN HOST COMMUNITIES AND REFUGEES

ABSTRACT

In 2016 alone, more than 435,000 Syrians were reported to be residing in Amman. The strengthening the resilience of vulnerable influx of Syrian refugees has increased the populations, improving living conditions, pressure on municipal infrastructure and expanding social communication between public services, particularly with regards to refugees and the local community, and education, transport, public spaces, waste establishing community-based activities management, energy and water. Greater and opportunities for capacity building in Amman Municipality’s overall response Badr Nazzal, a district located in the south is to seek ways of reducing socio-cultural of the city centre. The below case study tensions and spatial segregation between highlights two micro-initiatives within this host and refugee communities. This broad broader initiative, namely the rehabilitation objective builds on multi-stakeholder part- of local parks; and the organisation of foot- nerships. One such example is the initia- ball training courses for Syrian and Jorda- tive between the Greater Amman Munici- nian children. Both initiatives demonstrate pality, the French Agency for Development, how social cohesion can be strengthened the French Red Cross and the Jordanian through the creation of spaces of encoun- Red Crescent. This cooperation aims at ter and social networking programmes. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES pal services are provided to people regard- less of their country of origin or nationality. Nevertheless, for a number of districts in Amman is the capital and most populated Amman, the growth of refugee communi- city of Jordan. It is also its economic, polit- ties has caused increased pressure on mu- ical and cultural centre. Situated at the cen- nicipal infrastructure and public services, tre of the Middle East region, Jordan has a particularly regarding education, transport, long history of migration acting as both a public spaces, waste management, and the vertical and horizontal corridor for migra- provision of energy and water. tion throughout the region. The country has always been open to migrants and people This case study concerns Badr Nazzal, a fleeing their home countries and in need district located to the south of Amman’s of assistance. Relative to its own popula- city centre. In response to growing levels tion, Jordan stands as the second largest of need within the district, the French Agen- refugee-hosting country in the world, with cy for Development (AFD) has initiated a refugees representing more than 30 per- partnership between the Greater Amman cent of the total population. Despite this Municipality (GAM), the French Red Cross fact, Jordan has not signed up to the 1951 (French IFRC) and the Jordanian Red Cres- UNHCR Refugee Convention and does not cent (Jordanian IFRC). The project emerg- have legislation that regulates the status of ing from this cooperation follows a social refugees. cohesion approach and aims at strengthen- ing the resilience of vulnerable populations, The Municipality of Greater Amman con- improving living conditions, expanding the sists of twenty-two districts and divides social communication between refugees clearly into two socio-economically and and the local community and establishing geographically distinct parts. Whereas the community-based activities and capacity western districts are mainly inhabited by building opportunities. Through various upper-class households, the east is almost micro-initiatives, the project also aims to exclusively comprised of middle- and low- promote social cohesion by fostering the er-class households. emergence of a district-based identity, common to all residents irrespective of Approximately 30 percent of Amman’s 4 background. million inhabitants report as foreign-born and the influx of migrants into Amman has sharply increased since 2013, with the mass arrival of Syrian refugees. In 2016 alone, more than 435,000 Syrians were reported as residing in Amman1. On the whole, despite this increase, the city 1 UNHCR, information from Jordan Times, has responded effectively to meeting the Aug 7, 2016, http://www.jordantimes.com/news/ needs of both new and settled communi- local/over-half-syrian-refugees-jordan-are-chil- ties. Throughout the city, essential munici- dren%E2%80%99 IMPLEMENTATION Nazzal at GAM, the AFD, together with the French and Jordanian IFRC, designed a mi- cro-project to improve park facilities and Although composed of numerous micro-in- preserve these two parks as spaces of en- itiatives, the main objectives of the Badr counter. Nazzal project centre around providing im- proved access to social, economic and cul- All micro-initiatives were designed in an in- tural opportunities for refugees as well as tensive planning phase, which lasted three promoting initiatives that bring refugees and years. The implementation phase of the the host community closer together. Project rehabilitation of local parks initiative start- activities promote universal human rights ed in June 2016 and took six months to and have thus focused on the facilitation of complete. The main objective of this initi- refugee access to work and medical care. ative was the creation of opportunities for Additionally, the project aims to create spac- increased interaction and improved social es of encounter, where people can meet cohesion between Jordanian citizens and and where barriers inhibiting exchange can Syrian refugees. Active community partici- be collectively dismantled. Such spaces pation has been a key element of the project are provided through local charity bazaars; throughout, and both Jordanian citizens and through the rehabilitation of local parks (e.g. Syrian refugees were actively encouraged Shura park and Jordan park); and through to participate in the project’s development the creation of social networking pro- and implementation. Furthermore, the in- grammes such as football training courses clusion of Syrian refugees as labourers has for children. been promoted, providing access to capac- ity building and employment opportunities. The present case study seeks to highlight Across the two parks, activities included the latter two initiatives; namely the rehabil- the rehabilitation of both soft and hard land- itation of the Shura and Jordan park and the scape areas, additional planting, carpentry organisation of training courses for young and playground maintenance. footballers within the local community – a group that includes both Jordanian and Syr- Initiative 2: Training courses for young foot- ian children. ball players: A second micro-initiative sup- ported by this multi-stakeholder cooperation Initiative 1: Rehabilitation of Shura and Jor- is structured around the provision of football dan park: The rise in numbers of refugees training courses for local children aged 8–12 living in Badr Nazzal district has increased years. Participants in this programme come pressure on public places such as parks from local families, with both host and ref- and open-green spaces. Indeed, two local ugee communities represented. This social parks, Shura park and Jordan park, proved programme was designed to increase social incapable of meeting the maintenance re- cohesion and cultural inclusion within the quirements associated with increased visi- district through the development/strength- torship. Thus, guided by the Head of Devel- ening of communication lines between local opment and Citizen Services Units Bader Jordanian and Syrian children. This initiative promotes the social participation of refugee for social interaction between the host com- families, and contributes to maintaining and munity and refugees. District employees enhancing a sense of social security. The have confirmed an observable increase in project was initiated by the local community park usage by members of both the refugee in collaboration with the Badr Nazzal district and host communities. in February 2016 and ran for seven weeks. During this time, young residents received Equally important, the visible involvement professional instruction from trainers drawn of Syrian refugees in the implementation from similar social communities in spaces of project activities has had a positive im- provided by the GAM. pact on their wider social inclusion, miti- gating the threat of social segregation and countering localised discrimination. Fur- thermore, it can be argued that the employ- FINANCING AND RESOURCES ment opportunities provided for 15 Syrian refugees during the renovation activities The overall project, including the two pre- enabled them to build a daily routine and sented micro-initiatives, is funded through offered a form of psychosocial support to a the financial support of international agen- frequently traumatised community. cies and organisations. The main donor has been the AFD. The French and Jordanian Similarly, the football training programmes IFRC took responsibility for the implementa- have also worked positively towards im- tion of project activities, including capacity proved social cohesion in Badr Nazzal. building requirements, as foreseen in the During the programmes, project managers project design. have observed noticeable improvements in the way that children participants behaved and engaged with each other. Playing foot- ball together enabled them to cross social RESULTS AND IMPACTS and cultural divides. Overall, 50 children participated in the football training course The overall Badr Nazzal project is com- – 25 Jordanian children and 25 children prised of several short-term initiatives, each from Syrian families – and the benefi- delivered with relatively modest budgets. ciaries of this initiative generally showed This mode of operation encourages active increased acceptance of children from community participation through the regu- other backgrounds. lar delivery of tangible short-term impacts. This case study presents just two examples The rehabilitation of local parks succeeded from a number of initiatives connected with in redesigning public spaces to meet evolv- the Badr Nazzal district social-cohesion ing local needs. The community’s satisfac- project. The broader project is subject to tion with the renovation project is made vis- an overall evaluation as conditioned by the ible through an increase in park visitorship. support provided by the AFD (timeline tbc). This, in turn, creates further opportunities Similar initiatives are also supported in oth- er districts of the Greater Amman Munici- LESSONS LEARNED pality, although these are almost exclusively located in the eastern part of the city, where most of the Syrian refugees currently live. The GAM works towards the fulfilment of universal human rights for all residents of Amman and undertakes efforts to reduce BARRIERS AND CHALLENGES socio-cultural tensions and mitigate the risk of segregation between host and ref- ugee communities. The above micro-initi- During its implementation phase, the reha- atives form part of these wider efforts and bilitation of Shura and Jordan park faced present short-term, tangible and easily several obstacles. These were predom- accessible projects for refugees and local inantly related to project activity timeline communities. delays. Such delays were triggered by is- sues with external contractors, but also as In many ways, they display the character- a result of both parks remaining open to istics of “good practices”, as captured the public for the duration of the rehabili- by studies relating to social cohesion/ tation works. migrant inclusion in cities. Both initiatives, for instance, build on an awareness that the In contrast, the implementation of the foot- earlier inclusion programmes for migrants ball training scheme did not experience any are carried out, the better the chances for major challenges in terms of implementa- social cohesion.2 Additionally, the active in- tion. On the contrary, the project, which had volvement of refugees in the rehabilitation originally been initiated by the local com- of the local park, reflects an appreciation munity, benefited from broad support from of the linkages between capacity building all involved parties. However, where this at an individual level, and broader urban project can perhaps be seen as limited is resilience.3 in terms of its focus on a heavily gendered activity. In fact, no girls participated in the Fundamentally, the two initiatives entrench project activities. the notion that the involvement of non- native residents in neighbourhood de- Overall, both initiatives are limited in terms velopment and recreational activities is of temporal and financial scope. Whilst key to enabling spaces of encounter and limited, projectised budgets can be useful during a pilot phase, insofar as they allow innovative practices to be tested, ultimate- 2 MC2CM Peer Learning. (2016). Social cohesion ly, they represent a barrier to scale and risk and intercultural and inter-religious dialogue: impeding the longevity/sustainability of The role of local authorities in public policies for overall project objectives. the social inclusion of migrants. UCLG. 3 100 Resilient Cities. (2016). Global Migration - Resilient Cities at the Forefront: Strategic actions to adapt and transform our cities in an age of mi- gration. Athens: 100 Resilient Cities. p. 5 opportunities for dialogue. The football in- The comprehensive institutionalisation of itiative shows that the provision of active participatory, inclusive processes has the recreational activities is an effective means potential to contribute to increased stability of bringing young people of different back- and local security at the city level. grounds together, providing access to a healthy lifestyle while diffusing the po- tential for inter-cultural tensions. Some REFERENCES have even argued that such youth activ- ities might also function as a bridge for enhanced parental interaction. However, The case study builds on information pro- such suggestion would require validation vided by UCLG and the Greater Amman Mu- via further research. nicipality. This includes information collect- ed during several telephone interviews, as The football micro-initiative also sug- well as unpublished information concerning gests ways in which community initiatives, the two micro-initiatives and a draft version designed in direct response to self-as- of the forthcoming MC2CM Amman City Mi- sessed needs, have the potential to be cat- gration Profile. Official documents pertain- alysed and scaled up to a district level. In ing to the wider Badr Nazzal project have theory, this local ownership creates a firm not been made available to the author; nor foundation for longer-term, sustainable pro- was it possible to arrange further interviews gramming. In so doing, the football initiative with stakeholders outside of the GAM. and the park project highlight the value of designing a diversity of micro-initiatives that take different entry points into promot- ing social integration of migrants.

However, this approach can be further strengthened if the design of pilot inclusion projects, such as those presented above, were embedded within a longer-term strat- egy to transform them into programmes that are adequately resourced and protect- ed by local policy. It is thus important that such small-scale activities are followed-up, scaled-up and integrated into a broader and longer-term approach to social cohesion.

This case study has been prepared by Katrin Hofer under the coordination of Barbara Lipietz and Tim Wickson from the Bartlett’s Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College of London (UCL) and the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights, in the framework of the MC2CM Project. Co - funded by the European Union Co - funded by

@urban_migration icmpd.org/mc2cm [email protected]