Iraqis on the Move: Displaced Professionals, Protection/ 'Aman Space in Jordan and Memories of a Destroyed State
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Iraqis on the Move: Displaced Professionals, Protection/ 'Aman Space in Jordan and Memories of a Destroyed State Laura Adwan Thesis for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) University of Bergen, Norway 2020 Iraqis on the Move: Displaced Professionals, Protection/ 'Aman Space in Jordan and Memories of a Destroyed State Laura Adwan ThesisAvhandling for the for degree graden of philosophiaePhilosophiae doctorDoctor (ph.d (PhD). ) atved the Universitetet University of i BergenBergen Date of defense:2017 23.10.2020 Dato for disputas: 1111 © Copyright Laura Adwan The material in this publication is covered by the provisions of the Copyright Act. Year: 2020 Title: Iraqis on the Move: Displaced Professionals, Protection/ 'Aman Space in Jordan and Memories of a Destroyed State Name: Laura Adwan Print: Skipnes Kommunikasjon / University of Bergen Before, times like these have come before Times when we witnessed hurricanes that never stopped uprooting trees We thought that we had learned how to travel the road to the gods’ gate How to carry the burden and rise up again after the flood How to go, again If days come when we see hurricanes that never stop uprooting trees By Sargon Boulus1 1 Extract from “Times: The song of a Sumerian who lived for a thousand years,” a poem by Sargon Boulus, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon. From Azma Ukhra li-Kalb al-Qabila (Another Bone for the Tribe’s Dog). Beirut/Baghdad: Dar al-Jamal, 2008. i Contents MAP OF IRAQ AND SURROUNDING COUNTRIES ...................................................................... 1 NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION ................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 3 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCING THE THESIS – THEMES, CONCEPTS AND ARGUMENTS .................................. 8 THE FIELD SITE OF ‘LEARNING EXPERIENCE(S)’ ................................................................................ 10 AND ITS LACK OR ABSENCE AMONG DISPLACED IRAQIS IN THE FIELD ................................. 13 أمان ON ʾAMĀN THE GENERAL ARGUMENT ........................................................................................................... 15 THEORETICAL APPROACHES ON ʾAMĀN OR ‘WELL-BEING’ UNDER CONDITIONS OF STRUCTURAL CHANGE ...... 17 ON AGENCY IN CONDITIONS OF REDUCTION ..................................................................................... 19 LIMITED AID STRUCTURE: THE ‘FORMAL’ PROTECTION SPACE IN JORDAN ............................................... 23 AN IRAQI HISTORY OF CRISES – LESSONS IN SURVIVAL ....................................................................... 26 BIG QUESTIONS AND ANTHROPOLOGY ............................................................................................ 27 CHAPTER TWO ........................................................................................................................ 30 IN SEARCH OF UNDERSTANDING – COMPARISONS, METHODOLOGIES AND REFLEXIVITY 30 ENGAGING WITH LITERATURE ON IRAQ AND ETHNOGRAPHIES ON SOCIAL CHANGE, DISPLACEMENT AND WELL- BEING IN REDUCTIONIST CONDITIONS ............................................................................................. 30 METHODOLOGICAL CONCERNS ..................................................................................................... 39 SMALL THOUGHTS ON ‘POSITIONALITY’ .......................................................................................... 45 FIELDWORK ‘AS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE’ ...................................................................................... 48 OUTLINE OF THE CHAPTERS .......................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................... 56 HIGHLY SKILLED IRAQI PROFESSIONALS AND ACADEMICS IN SEARCH OF ʾAMĀN AND WELL-BEING ............................................................................................................................ 56 DR. SHARIF’S STORY- A FUGITIVE AND DOCTOR VOLUNTEER ............................................................... 57 THE EXPULSION OF HIGHLY QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS FROM BAGHDAD............................................... 58 ‘WORKING’ TO EXTEND THE SPACE OF ʾAMĀN IN COMPLEX CONDITIONS TO THE POSSIBLE .......................... 61 FOUR POSSIBILITIES OF ‘WORKING’ AS HIGHLY-SKILLED IRAQI PROFESSIONALS IN THE ABSENCE OF STATE INSTITUTIONS ............................................................................................................................ 66 POSSIBILITY 1-FROM HIGHLY-SKILLED PROFESSIONALS IN BAGHDAD TO TEMPORARY CONTRACTED WORKERS IN AMMAN ............................................................................................................................... 67 -PROFESSOR NAIM: A FOREIGN WORKER IN JORDAN AND AN IRAQI IN EXILE (AL-MANFA) ........................... 69 -PROFESSOR BALQEES: A FUNGIBLE WORKER ................................................................................... 71 -PROFESSOR WALEED: A MIGRANT WORKER .................................................................................... 72 POSSIBILITY 2-FROM HIGHLY SKILLED PROFESSIONALS IN BAGHDAD TO “CIRCULAR MIGRANTS” WHO WORK (AND LIVE) BETWEEN IRAQ AND JORDAN ........................................................................................ 75 -PROFESSOR SALIM: RETURNING TO WORK IN HIS FORMER UNIVERSITY IN BAGHDAD TO SUPPORT HIS FAMILY’S EXPENSES IN AMMAN.................................................................................................................. 78 -DR TAREQ: A TEMPORARY EMPLOYEE IN JORDAN LOOKING FOR BETTER POSITION IN HIS MOTHER’S HOME-CITY ERBIL ...................................................................................................................................... 82 -SHAIMA: AN IRAQI STUDENT IN AMMAN PLANNING TO RETURN TO WORK IN BAGHDAD WITH HER FATHER, UPON HER GRADUATION .............................................................................................................. 83 -UM-TAI: UNEMPLOYED ENGINEER SUPPORTED BY HER FATHER, A MEDICAL DOCTOR WHO RETURNED TO WORK IN HIS TRIBAL TOWN IN IRAQ ........................................................................................................ 84 ii WELL-BEING AS PERCEIVED BY IRAQI PROFESSIONALS IN CONDITIONS OF CIRCULAR MIGRATION ................ 87 POSSIBILITY 3- WORKING AS ‘DE-VALUED PROFESSIONALS’- OUTSIDE THEIR FIELDS OF COMPETENCE .......... 90 POSSIBILITY 4 – SEARCHING FOR ʾAMĀN IN EUROPE AND JORDAN- THE EXPERIENCE OF LUTFIYA AL-DULAIMI, AN IRAQI AUTHOR ...................................................................................................................... 93 MOVING BETWEEN DIFFERENT LABELS AND PLACES .......................................................................... 97 CHAPTER FOUR ...................................................................................................................... 104 IRAQIS STUCK IN AMMAN: ON THE CONDITIONS OF ‘–LESSNESS’ AND HOW TO BE ‘MOST VULNERABLE/ ELIGIBLE FOR AID’ IN THE FORMAL SPACE OF PROTECTION ................... 104 HOUSE-VISITS AND THE PRODUCTION OF –LESSNESS ......................................................................... 107 THE ‘PRODUCTION’ OF REFUGEES ................................................................................................. 110 DRAWING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PROTECTION SPACE .................................................................... 111 CASE 1: MAKING NEED VISIBLE ................................................................................................... 113 CASE 2: THE PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE OF NEED ......................................................... 116 QUANTIFYING THE NEED ............................................................................................................ 119 OUTREACHING REFUGEES- THE AID ORGANIZATIONS’ PART OF THE STORY ............................................ 124 REFLECTIONS ON –LESSNESS AS A PRECONDITION OF INCLUSION IN HUMANITARIAN AID .......................... 132 CHAPTER FIVE ....................................................................................................................... 135 ONGOING CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM OF AID AND ACCESS TO WORK IN JORDAN ............. 135 THE FIRST CONTEXT -OF WORK FOR IRAQIS IN JORDAN ...................................................................... 136 The rumor of a ‘secret pardon’ ................................................................................................ 138 Working in conditions of “permanent ‘temporariness’” between rumors and ‘royal’ exceptions/decrees ......................................................................................................................................... 143 ʾAmān in conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity ....................................................................... 145 THE SECOND CONTEXT -OF AID SYSTEMS AND DYNAMICS IN THE FORMAL PROTECTION SPACE ................... 147 The ‘refugee’- an unsettling notion ..........................................................................................