Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

The Humanitarian Regime of Sovereignty: INGOs and Iraqi Migration to

Sophia Hoffmann

Abstract pratique. Seules les OGNI plus petites, moins expérimen- Th is article considers the activities of international, tées et actives hors du réseau humanitaire professionnel humanitarian NGOs in Syria focused on Iraqi migrants. semblent avoir travaillé en-dehors de ces conceptions. Th e analysis questions how these INGOs were positioned towards modern state sovereignty, and sovereignty’s par- espite their variety, all humanitarian, international ticular constructions of territory, population, and govern- non-governmental organizations (INGOs) need ment. Arguing that most INGOs operated fi rmly within the Dto position themselves towards state sovereignty, in their management of the limits and opportunities that social relations stipulated by modern sovereignty, the arti- sovereign exclusions and boundaries pose for their oper- cle uses rich ethnographic data to demonstrate how INGO ations. Th is article demonstrates how a small number of activities treated according to sovereign exclusions very diff erent INGOs, all involved in the management of and ideas about citizenship, even though Iraqi life in Syria Iraqi migrants in , embedded themselves in the visibly contradicted these ideas. Only smaller, amateur particular relationships of bureaucracy, money, emotion, INGOs that stood outside of the professional humanitarian and violence that, partly, constituted state sovereignty in sector were found to work outside of sovereignty’s norms. this context. Th e article argues that INGOs played a small, but key, role in constructing state sovereignty vis-à-vis the Résumé potentially sovereignty-disturbing event of Iraqi migration. Cet article se penche sur l’activité des organismes interna- Field research found only small instances of “anti-sovereign” tionaux non gouvernementaux humanitaires auprès des practices among NGO workers, which transcended the migrants irakiens présents en Syrie. On y analyse comment framework of social relations imposed by sovereignty. se positionnent ces ONGI quant au discours et aux politi- Th is article is situated in the fi eld of critical IR litera- ture, which has in the past two decades attempted to apply ques de l’état moderne, et en particulier en rapport avec Foucauldian methods in order to show how the lived reality ses conceptions relatives à la construction du territoire, à of state sovereignty is created through minute practices of la population et au gouvernement. On y soutient que dans daily life.1 Migration, especially forced migration, has been la majorité des cas, les ONGI travaillent pleinement dans recognized by critical IR scholars as a key area of contesta- le cadre de la structure sociale obéissant à ces conceptions tion to the spatial and political organization of state sover- renforcées par l’état souverain, incluant des conceptions eignty.2 Migration therefore provides an exceptionally rich d’exclusion et de citoyenneté. Les riches données ethnogra- fi eld of study for daily-life practices through which migrants phiques étudiées permettent à l’auteur de montrer com- are managed and channelled into sovereignty-conform ment les activités des ONGI ont conséquemment traité les modes of life. Th e particular contribution of this article irakiens selon ces représentations d’exclusion et de citoyen- lies in the rich ethnographic detail that it provides to show neté, même si la vie irakienne en Syrie les contredisait en how this managing and channelling of migrants is achieved

59 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

through non-state agents, through practices of power that acted out through particular behaviour and performances frequently lie in highly personalized interactions in areas in geographical locations that necessarily belong to the of life not generally considered as the remit of state power. domestic sphere of some state. Interestingly, as the clashes As this article shows, this development does not result in a between the way that international NGOs constructed Iraqi diminishing of state sovereignty, but in a transformation of migrants and the way these were integrated by the Syrian the modes of power and locations through which it becomes government made clear, while the practices that construct the hegemonic way of ordering society. As this article also the “international” are closely related to the idealized ver- shows, the diff usion of agents and loci of power that enable sion of state sovereignty as the territory-government-popu- state sovereignty in fact make it harder to oppose, than when lation triptych, the practices that enforce domestic sovereign all or most power emanates from state institutions. Syria, orders are much more varied and context-dependent. Th is where the liberal forms of power exercised by international means that while acting as members of the “international NGOs were new, as the state had for decades used more vis- community,” NGO workers or state offi cials behave accord- ible techniques of violence and insecurity to rule, was a par- ing to the notions of the “sovereign ideal,” as if the ideal- ticularly interesting setting to study such transformations. ized social relations of unifi ed territory, governance, and Th e notions of “sovereignty” and “sovereign power” are population were a universal, lived reality. Yet when acting complicated by the overlapping ways in which they are as members of a specifi c domestic order, people adjust to the deployed in a variety of social science literature to describe particular techniques of power that are prevalent under dif- diff erent concepts. In this article, “state sovereignty” ferent governments: the manner of rule in Germany is very describes the social, spatial, and political organization that diff erent than that in Syria. is created by, and creates, the international system of sover- Professional INGOs were prevented by the Syrian gov- eign states, as well as the domestic sovereign order of indi- ernment from amassing knowledge about the Iraqi popu- vidual states. Th is organization rests on the one hand on the lation and could not conduct the “needs-assessments” that hegemonic belief that a unity of territory, government, and usually form the basis of aid projects. INGOs in Damascus population—each bound to each other through politics of thus based their interventions largely on assumptions about representation—is the natural and correct way for human the Iraqi population, which fl owed from established ideas life to be ordered on a global scale. Th is hegemonic belief and tropes about refugees, intimately connected to sover- is referred to in this article as the “sovereign ideal.” On the eignty and sovereign exclusions.3 In this way INGO prac- other hand, state sovereignty rests on an enormous range tices revealed how the “sovereign ideal” of territory, nation, of behaviour—practices—that transmits the sovereign ideal and government informed techniques of migration man- into the lived reality of daily life. Th is article mobilizes agement, which in turn reproduced this ideal. detailed ethnographic fi ndings to show how exactly such Th e results from fi eld research lead to the conclusions that practices, that turned hegemonic ideas about state sover- INGO activity transformed such social developments that eignty into lived power relations, worked in the interactions destabilized sovereignty (in this case Iraqi migration) into between Iraqi migrants, the Syrian state, and international sovereignty-conform situations. INGOs operated within NGOs. Governments—and, as this article will show, also the territorial and population divisions of sovereignty and a range of other actors—rely on a variety of techniques of maintained them. While in general INGO activity may power to instruct and coerce human beings into behaviour weaken the stability and power of particular governments that accords with the demands of state sovereignty. What and may have a transformative eff ect on the micro-relations Foucauldians refer to as “sovereign power,” i.e. the violent, through which sovereignty is constructed, there appears to spectacular punishment of digressions against the ruler, is be no indication that, especially in the humanitarian fi eld, one such technique. To avoid confusion, this article does INGOs weaken the ideal of sovereignty and the forms of not use the phrase “sovereign power” in this way. In this power that fl ow from it.4 article, “sovereign” refers to the idea that the state should Empirically, this article is based on direct observations of be the exclusive arbiter of life on its territory and over its INGO activities in Damascus, as well as “indirect” observa- population. tions obtained through conversations and interviews with Th e fi nal, sovereignty-related point of importance to Iraqi migrants, foreign and Syrian INGO staff , and foreign clarify in the context of this article is the dynamic inter- UN staff . INGO documentation about activities for Iraqis action between international and domestic space. While in Syria, such as websites, funding proposals, and annual domestic space encompasses actual, geographical locations, reports, was widely consulted and analyzed, to understand the “international” is necessarily imagined and conceptual. how the ideas and attitudes expressed in these documents Th e international is a purely imaginative construct that is related to INGO practices.

60 Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility

Th is article is divided into four main parts. Th e fi rst sec- for the delivery of goods/services was that Iraqis needed tion will give an overview of INGO activity focused on Iraqi assistance and help to survive, and to lead meaningful and refugees in Damascus. Th e second section analyzes the healthy lives, as reported by the numerous INGO reports practices of professional INGOs that were offi cially regis- on the needs and suff erings of the Iraqi community in tered with the Syrian state and characterized by the ideas Syria.10 Th is “needs-based” view of Iraqi life was also the and language of professional humanitarianism. Th e third standard argument with which INGOs justifi ed funding section concentrates on unoffi cial, semi-professional, or requests, and was the general perspective that at least the amateur INGOs that ran projects for Iraqis. Displaying a professional INGOs used in their aid projects worldwide. greater variety of approaches, these organizations’ positions In Damascus, professional INGOs generally maintained a towards sovereignty was eclectic; sometimes confi rming, centrally located head offi ce, but conducted their operations sometimes undermining sovereignty. Th e article closes in Iraqi-populated suburbs, such as Saida Zainab, , with a conclusion aiming to summarize the most important or Yarmouk, more rarely also in cities outside Damascus elements of the analysis. such as and . Smaller, less formal INGOs were run from private fl ats, church facilities, or with no central 1. Another Consequence of the Invasion of Iraq: location. Th e range of programs broadly covered medical INGOs in Damascus help, education, leisure activities, and the building of infra- Th e link between post-2003 Iraqi migration to Syria and structure (new schools or hospital facilities).11 the sudden and unexpected expansion of INGO presence Accessing INGOs in Damascus proved diffi cult dur- in Damascus has been noted repeatedly.5 Th is expansion, ing fi eld research. Other than I had expected, the sudden made possible chiefl y through the construction of Iraqi enlargement of the INGO sector had not led to increased migration as a humanitarian catastrophe and the lobby- ease of communication and transparency. Instead, many ing eff orts of international advocacy organizations, was INGO employees, especially those of large organizations also linked to political developments in Syria, such as a with little experience in Syria, were too worried about state growing openness among prominent government fi gures surveillance to meet me, despite the very general and rela- towards foreign NGOs and their role in economic develop- tively non-controversial focus of my research. While initially ment.6 Th e rapid and large-scale funding provided by North frustrating, these experiences became valuable information Atlantic states to UNHCR Syria for its Iraqi program, and in their own right, as they expressed ways of control and UNHCR’s need to fi nd implementing partners to run pro- self-preservation exercised by INGO employees, and related jects, increased the pressure on the Syrian government to to questions about Syrian state sovereignty. allow the registration of INGOs.7 Consequently, by 2009– 10, 13 INGOs were established as partners to UNHCR in 2. Professional Humanitarian INGOs Damascus; and around half a dozen church organizations Professional INGOs were those organizations that already (with international links) and a small number of private or had a large portfolio of aid projects in Asia and Africa, and less offi cial international organizations operated independ- for which Syria simply represented the entry into a new ently.8 No public register for organizations working with “market,” where previous experiences could be adapted and Iraqi migrants existed, and despite increasingly stream- rolled out. For these organizations, which formed part of lined, bureaucratic registration processes, (I)NGOs still the global, professional humanitarian sector, entry into maintained various channels with the state to authorize Syria was simply an expansion of their existing programs their activities.9 My research collected information on 10 elsewhere. As will be argued and demonstrated, their prac- very diff erent INGOs, to varying extent. On two occasions, tices, beliefs, and set-ups intimately connected them to the I was able to conduct repeated and intensive participant political, social, and spatial organization of the sovereign observations; on four occasions, in-depth interviews plus ideal of a unity of territory, government, and population, limited observations; at other times information was col- as well as the idea that the government-citizen relationship lected through informal conversations and/or interviews is one of mutual rights and duties, and protection. Such with INGO staff , benefi ciaries, or third parties. organizations included Danish Refugee Council, Terres des INGO projects ranged from professionalized services Hommes, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and delivered by experienced, large organizations, to semi-pri- Première Urgence, established bureaucratic apparatuses and vate projects run by amateurs. Apart from the divergence players in the global humanitarian sector.12 Th eir modus among INGOs in terms of programs, staff , and set-up, a operandi included standardized regulatory requirements, common thread was that their operations established Iraqis including a degree of transparency, fi nancial accountability, as recipients of either goods or services. Th e stated reasons

61 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

and bureaucratic continuity, which signifi cantly infl uenced Humanitarian needs their interactions with the Syrian state.13 Due to their illegal status, the Iraqi refugee population in Syria is One of the few professional INGOs that responded to my facing a diffi cult situation being both illegal and out of funds, and requests for an interview was the IRC, one of two US-based their possibilities of living a decent life are limited. Th e infl ux of INGOs operating in Damascus.14 Th e interview took place refugees has created additional infl ation and pressure on the job at IRC’s inconspicuous offi ce behind a main road in central market in the country. Criminality has increased, and prostitu- Damascus, located in a typical, French-style Damascus fl at tion of young Iraqi women in need of cash support has become a on the fi rst fl oor, with wide stone fl oors and high windows. reason for resentment by the host community. Th e Syrian educa- Th ree employees, two Syrian, one European, provided me tion system is also struggling to cope with the increased numbers with an overview of the organization’s activities with Iraqi of children and the access to secondary or tertiary health care sys- refugees, which at that time consisted of projects in the edu- tems for Iraqis with chronic diseases is very limited.18 cation sector. IRC was renovating and improving a number of schools in deprived suburbs and off ering remedial classes Th e website of Terres des Hommes Switzerland, which sup- for Iraqi pupils.15 ports a number of health-projects in Syria, carries the fol- Th ree main ideas emerged from the interview: fi rstly, lowing description: that Iraqi pupils faced problems when trying to attend school in Syria and in turn created problems for the edu- Regional assistance to Iraqi refugees cation sector; secondly, that Syria was a new and diffi cult Th e Iraqi groups who have taken up temporary refuge in Syria context for IRC to operate in due to the control exercised by and Jordan are in great distress. Th ey have very few rights and no state institutions; and thirdly, that funding constraints and access to adequate services, in particular in the fi eld of psychol- opportunities were a central concern for IRC. Th e expatri- ogy. However, this is where their needs are greatest because of the ate director conveyed a businesslike attitude, focused on the trauma experienced during the war, while fl eeing and also during managerial challenges faced by IRC such as the obtaining of their stay in the country which has taken them in. TdH is provid- funds, the hiring of staff , and compliance with government ing psychological and social help to these children and their fam- regulations. ilies in Jordan, where it has opened a centre. Two partner relief organizations are working in Syria.19 A Deviant Population One of the Syrian staff explained that there were around 1.5 Th ese images of Iraqi migrants, which are focused exclu- million Iraqi refugees in Syria and that 60 percent of Iraqi sively on the negative elements of their life and migration children did not attend school, adding: experience, cast the population as problematic and in need of correction. Th e notable focus on psychological trauma As you might have read, Syrian schools suff ered from overcrowd- and sexual deviance (an oft en repeated trope in INGO ing. First, the Iraqis face many challenges when it comes to school- publications on Iraqi refugees) located Iraqis’ problems ing. For example, with the English language, in Syria we start in fi rmly inside their own minds and bodies, implying and year one, whereas in Iraq they only start in year seven, so there is highlighting the need for interventions targeting Iraqi a very big gap there. Th en there are the fi nancial problems, this is lives and individuals, rather than the external, political probably the biggest problem. Oft en children have to work and circumstances that were contributing to Iraqi poverty. families live off their wages.16 Unsurprisingly, this was indeed the form that many profes- sional INGO projects took. Th is rhetoric closely refl ected the language and informa- Crucially, the connection between Iraqis’ problems and tion about Iraqis on IRC’s website and the organization’s the fact that they were migrants/refugees was made through- press releases and reports.17 Iraqis in Syria were presented out these texts. Emphasis was placed on the assumed illegal- as hopelessly troubled and in desperate need of the world’s ity of Iraqis in their states of exile and their lack of rights. attention and aid. IRC’s language was, even compared to Th e act of migration to another state, and the existence as that of other NGOs, extreme in this regard; however, it a refugee, was portrayed as an existence of last resort, an nevertheless represented broadly the tone of most INGO unnatural existence, as it placed Iraqis outside of the sover- publications on Iraqi refugees, as illustrated by the selection eign norm, according to which humans must reside on the of texts below. territory of a government off ering them a legally binding Th e Danish Refugee Council’s website depicted Iraqi life relationship of rights (which the Syrian government, which as follows (similar wording in the organization’s quarterly operated a policy of renewable, temporary residency per- reports): mits in addition to tolerating transgressions against work

62 Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility

prohibitions and outdated permits, did not).20 Crucial to Th e IRC interlocutors explained that their actions the argument of this article were the implicit and explicit were closely monitored by offi cials from the Ministry of constructions of state sovereignty as the accepted, correct, Education, with whom they met every week to discuss and existing political organization that emerged from these progress and to request approvals. Aft er broad approval statements, and the assumed impossibility of a good life had been received, further requests had to be made regu- outside the home state. Th ese constructions implied that a larly even for small activities, such as distributing leafl ets to clear, legal connection to a protective sovereign state were inform Iraqi students about projects. a fundamental requirement for leading a secure and stable Th e schools that IRC was rebuilding and renovating, existence. Th e act of crossing state borders was understood located in the suburbs Harasta, Qudseya, and Bila, had as outside the norm and only to be taken in extreme cir- been chosen by the Ministry of Education, rather than by cumstance, with severe consequences such as illegality and an independent needs assessment. Concerning the infor- the need for outside help. Iraqi existence outside of Iraq’s mation and statistics about Iraqi pupils, according to which territory was not taken as an indication of the lack of truth the schools had been identifi ed (Syrian government statis- of the stipulated, sovereign unity of government, territory, tics are notoriously poor and/or non-existent), the IRC staff and population, but as a wrong, bad, and dangerous state explained that it was not easy to get information, as the sta- of aff airs that needed to be corrected so that the (fi ctional) tistics of the ministry were old, and that IRC used a mixture correct, good, and safe situation of sovereignty could be of government and UNHCR statistics for their purposes. regained. Th e knowledge and fi gures about Iraqis, which IRC staff so INGO rhetoric and practice was here fi rmly within the confi dently provided, thus appeared largely as assumptions, discourse of the modern ideal of sovereignty and neither rather than empirically researched. In this particular case, weakened nor deconstructed it. Descriptions of Iraqi activ- IRC’s choices and projects were so closely related to those of ities in exile that contradicted the sovereign ideal, and that the ministry that the boundary between governmental and placed into question the notions of sovereign legality, cit- non-governmental appeared blurred. izenship, and nationality, were absent from INGO rhetoric Th e close monitoring and control exercised by Syrian and, broadly, from their programs—even though such activ- ministries over INGO activities and knowledge was fur- ities were highly visible in Damascene suburbs at the time. ther described in an insightful report by the Middle East Despite the troubled situation in their society of origin and Institute, as illustrated by the following extract, describing their oft en horrible recent past, Iraqis in Damascus were INGO registration procedures:22 also thriving: through their own strength and due to a pol- itical, social, and cultural context that did not produce them One condition to be accredited is to present proof that the organ- as hopeless, non-sovereign outsiders. But in INGO texts, the ization is fully funded. Th e second step is to submit a project natural and ideally best location for Iraqis was the territory proposal to SARC without being able to a conduct preliminary of Iraq and the sovereign space of the Iraqi state, and it was needs assessment. Aft er SARC approves the proposal, it signs only highly exceptional circumstances that had undone this a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the INGO. Th e natural and baseline situation. Th rough this selective por- MoU was particularly challenging for the fi rst INGOs that signed trayal of Iraqi existence in Syria, INGOs strengthened the agreements with SARC: these agreements included the obligation construction of the sovereign ideal in a context where the for INGOs to share a common bank account with SARC, and the lived reality of Iraqis in Syria placed it in question. need for SARC’s approval for any disbursement or the payment of 2 percent of the NGOs’ budget to SARC in compensation for State-NGO Relations expenses related to the partnership. A few months later, these Returning to the IRC interview, the second important fi nancial arrangements were lift ed aft er SARC realized that they point concerning professional INGOs and sovereignty that were time consuming, impractical, and unacceptable by donors emerged was the interaction between IRC and Syrian state and INGOs [sic].23 institutions. When I asked whether I could visit one of their projects, IRC’s expatriate director warned me: Th e described restrictions partly explained the reluctance of INGO representatives to meet with me as a researcher. Th is is not a regular environment for NGOs, I will request More importantly, the quote demonstrates that professional approval and I’m sure that there will not be a problem but we will INGOs transported norms, ideas, and behaviours onto have to see. In a diff erent context we would take you along and Syrian territory, which were diff erent to those expected by show you everything, but here … 21 state offi cials. Further, the highlighted tensions show how clashes and squabbles over the “way to do things” could lead

63 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

to changes in practices and beliefs on both sides, resulting future of Syrian and Iraqi children” explained Sandar Bachrach, in new micro-practices that could gradually produce social Première Urgence’s chief of mission in Syria. and political transformations to the way the Syrian govern- ment was able to enforce the Syrian state’s sovereignty over In this text, Première Urgence is not simply concerned its territory and the people residing on it. with easing the lives of disadvantaged youngsters, but is Th e importance of the tense relationship between profes- also focused on promoting a distinction between Iraqi and sional INGOs and Syrian state institutions for analysis of Syrian children. Th e reference to overcrowding and the fi g- sovereignty concerned both the domestic and international ures, percentages, and locations of Iraqi children imply that sovereignty of the Syrian state. Domestically, INGO pro- Iraqi children are somehow alien to the Syrian education grams and procedures changed, on a minuscule level, the sector. Given that the raison d’être of INGOs’ presence in way state institutions intervened in private lives in Syria, Syria was the existence of “alien,” Iraqi refugees, promoting introducing new forms of power into the sphere of Syrian their distinction was in fact existential to these organiza- domestic sovereignty. INGO projects developed new public tions. Th is observation again points out that INGOs work- spaces, which remained heavily state controlled, through ing on refugee issues were closely bound to the exclusions of the operation of community centres or women’s shelters, sovereignty, rather than standing outside or even opposed and ran unprecedented programs focused on the inner life to such exclusions. In the Syrian context, what made these of individuals, such as psychosocial counselling or parent- INGO practices all the more striking were how they diff ered ing skills. Th ese new forms of social organization and inter- from the opportunities for integration that were off ered by ventions included new governance techniques, in which the Syrian government’s policies towards Iraqis. Th e ease the Syrian state appeared in various, and new, forms. For with which Iraqi children could register with and attend example, the existence of foreign and Syrian INGO staff , Syrian schools stood in stark contradictions to the portrayal and spaces associated with INGOs, created new opportun- of these children by INGO texts and programs. Th e Syrian ities for state offi cials to demonstrate the state’s presence in government did not mobilize elements of the state (in this these newly created domestic spheres. Again, INGO activ- case the education system) to systematically exclude Iraqis ities thus did not weaken the sovereignty of the Syrian state and in this way demonstrate the unity and homogeneity of over Syrian territory; however, they changed the way this the Syrian national population. Such exclusions were not sovereignty could be performed and experienced. an integral part of the repertoire of power through which Professional INGO programs also introduced a strict the Syrian government emphasized the state’s sovereignty. conceptual distinction between Iraqi and Syrian “bene- Instead, this sovereignty was created through practices of fi ciaries,” as their project proposals and reports stipulated insecurity and violence that applied to everyone residing percentages for both. Th is practice made the national div- on Syrian territory, be they Syrian or foreign passport hold- ision, a key organizing principle of modern sovereignty, vis- ers. Th ese contradictions demonstrated how humanitarian ible and fi xed to all involved in the programs and elevated approaches to population management can transform the it to new importance.24 Particularly in the fi eld of education way governments view and act upon migration and can projects, the continued distinction made between Syrian introduce diff erent, more subtle forms of power through and Iraqi children, the latter described as the reason for the which the order of state sovereignty is created and main- overcrowding of schools, was striking. To use the example tained. Yet the Syrian situation, in which INGOs also had of Première Urgence’s description of its school rehabilita- to adapt to requirements by the Syrian government, also tion program, in an announcement concerning the comple- highlighted that such changes occurred through dynamic tion of two new school buildings: exchange, in which both sides infl uenced each other’s room to operate. Th ese two schools, with a capacity to host 1.050 pupils, will allow the development of a response to the overcrowding of Syrian 3. Semi-offi cial and Unoffi cial INGOs public schools and will promote the enrolment of Iraqi refu- In addition to the large, professional INGOs described gee children. Over 33.500 Iraqi children are enrolled in Syrian above, in 2009–10 a number of organizations operated aid schools and over 75% of these are attending schools in the greater projects for Iraqis in Damascus that were neither offi cially Damascus region. ( … ) registered with the Syrian government nor reliant on pro- fessional staff . Th ese organizations did not maintain regular, “We are proud of this result and are now eagerly looking forward close contact with Syrian ministries; their staff possessed to the creation of educational programmes with the support of a deeper, more intuitive knowledge of Syrian government the Syrian ministry for education, with the goal to ensure the red lines, and were open to meeting me as a researcher and

64 Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility

allowing me to participate in and observe their programs. one of the directors about several of the students (all names All organizations maintained a very low profi le. have been changed):

Iraqi Student Project He talked about Ibrahim and how he was such a great kid. “Th is Th e “semi-offi cial” INGO that I had closest access to, and guy’s essays, they are just so good, his use of English. … If I could which was the most intriguing of all, was an organization speak directly to any of the people in admission at the colleges, I called Iraqi Student Project (ISP). Th is organization had would really tell him to take this guy, he’s just going to take off and been set up by a retired couple from the US, to help gift ed fl ourish over there.” It’s clear that Ibrahim is one of the director’s Iraqi high school graduates receive scholarships to liberal favourites and I just can’t get it out of my head that it has to do arts colleges in the US. Apart from a single paid employee in with his pretty tough story of 1.5 years in poverty in Jordan, dur- the US, where ISP was registered as a non-profi t organization, ing which he was alone with his father and had to take care of the this INGO was funded entirely through the couple’s income household etc. ( … ) from social security and donations of time and money from a small group of supporters in the US and Syria.25 Th e He named Radi as one of the students that he had some doubts organization was run out of the couple’s rented, two-bed- about having the maturity to success “once he is alone over there”. room fl at in central Damascus, which functioned as a live/ While he acknowledged that Radi was very passionate about his work space, where volunteer teachers—oft en American or subject and very good in class in getting the others to participate, British TOEFL teachers working at the American Language he somehow doubted that Radi had the toughness to “hack it” Institute close by—ran classes to prepare the selected stu- once out there in the states by himself. I was quite surprised by dents for their study and life in the US.26 this assessment, as Radi lives on his own in Syria and is managing Th e central fascination that developed from the partici- his aff airs by himself, and while there is indeed something quite pant-observation at ISP concerned the intense and com- “young” about him, I personally defi nitely found him quite tough plicated power dynamics between the elderly directors, and grounded.27 the volunteers, and the young Iraqi students. Aft er several severe confl icts at the organization, in which students were Th e two directors’ personal view of students held enor- expelled from the program for unclear reasons, I became mous sway over their future, as most students considered aware of how the power imbalance between directors and their success in the program as monumentally important. students worked underneath the egalitarian and peace- One Iraqi young woman described how, at the time that ful veneer. Given this article’s focus on the construction of she was being considered for ISP, her alternative option sovereignty through INGO programs, the following para- would have been a job as a waitress in one of the new malls graphs aim to tease out how ideas and practices of sover- of Damascus, highlighting how the chance to complete a eignty were present in the relationships at ISP. university degree in the US was an extremely desirable exit Th e selection process for students was based on sev- from a dead-end existence in Syria. Th is desire to succeed, eral standard items, such as being Iraqi, not having been coupled with the arbitrary and personal control exercised accepted for UNHCR resettlement, having a good school by the program directors, created pressure to conform. Th e record, and expressing an interest to return to Iraq aft er following extract from a conversation with one of the Iraqi fi nishing college to contribute to the country’s future. In students, which occurred in the immediate aft ermath of the addition, selection depended on assessments of the candi- sudden and unexpected dismissal of another student, high- date’s family environment, his/her psychological stability, lights this situation. and potential for coping alone in a foreign country. Th ese assessments were carried out in a relatively informal man- Th e thing with Hussein was such a shock. With Huda, ok, it was ner by the two directors, through home visits and inter- kind of predictable that they wanted to kick her out, but with views. If selected, candidates joined a program of classes Hassan it was a complete shock. Everyone likes him, he is such and were subjected to continuing, broadly informal mon- a friendly and smart guy. And they did not give him a warning. itoring by the directors and volunteer teachers. Should a Aft er this, everyone feels insecure, no one knows what is going to student become considered as “not ready,” she or he could happen. ( … ) be required to complete a further year of program, or could be expelled at any time. I feel so afraid now. Do we have to depend on her moods? Th e personal nature of these assessments is illustrated by Everything can change, I don’t know how to behave so that she the fi eld note excerpt below, reporting a conversation with likes me. Today when she said something about my trousers, I thought oh no, I’m not going to wear these trousers again. Does

65 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

she not like my hair the way it is? Does she not like my nose today? classes every day. Once a week my wife [one of the directors] does Or if I write an essay that she does not like … First we were under a writer’s workshop which focuses on essay writing skills. [ … ] pressure in Iraq, then we were under the pressure of the Syrian government, when we don’t know whether they will kick the For many Americans it is an experience to meet an Iraqi. It Iraqis out and now we are under the pressure of ISP.28 becomes a real place for them. One of our students was at immi- gration, when the offi cer stopped short at the passport and did Th is statement crystallizes how personal relationships at a double take, then expressed surprise that this girl, who does the program were fused with wider, political relationships not wear the hijab and wears modern clothes, could be from Iraq. of sovereignty that strongly infl uenced the power dynamics “You can walk around like that in Iraq?” Yes you can. “Is that a tat- at work. Th e nature of the relationships at ISP could only too?” Yes. “You can have a tattoo in Iraq?” Yes you can.29 be explained with reference to the material and imagined realities of sovereignty, indeed they were sovereignty in the Iraq and the US emerged as two distinct educational sense that they replicated and confi rmed the particular div- spaces, in which knowledge and knowledge-production isions of territory, population, and government that lie at functioned, were understood, and were valued diff erently. sovereignty’s heart. Materially, the power exercised by the In order to succeed in the US, the students had to abandon ISP directors was directly linked to their US citizenship aspects of their previous, “Iraqi” learning and acquire new which, in accordance with sovereignty, bonded them to modes of knowledge and thinking. Modern state sover- the US government, which provided them with the money eignty closely links knowledge-production to questions of required to run their organization. Th eir security and power legitimacy and government. Distinct epistemologies con- was inversely refl ected by the insecurity and weakness of nect citizens to the imagined sovereign in a particular way the Iraqi students, whose Iraqi citizenship bonded them to and establish the citizen’s home-state as diff erent (and oft en the Iraqi government, which provided them with neither better) than all other states; the fundamental boundaries of opportunities nor money. In this way, the ISP program security and global hierarchy are established through dis- reinforced and magnifi ed the sovereign ideal in an environ- courses about what constitutes valuable, useful, dynamic ment in which Iraqi migration in fact oft en blurred it. and creative learning and knowledge, as much as through Th e constructions of sovereignty on the level of imagina- other media.30 In this sense, knowledge and education have tion and ideas that emerged at ISP were much harder to pin replaced, or have been added to, oaths of allegiance and/ down, and full of contradictions. Students were frequently or religion as ways of connecting populations with their encouraged to express their national pride as Iraqis, and rulers.31 numerous books about Iraq’s rich history and maps were Such distinct forms of knowledge became visible at ISP displayed in the ISP fl at. But representations of Iraq as a seminars, during discussions about representations of Iraq place of destruction and hopelessness also abounded, in and the schooling the students had experienced in the past. which the US appeared as a safe haven, the only chance for Th e recordings of a number of classes showed that, of course, these students to lead meaningful lives. Th e ISP directors Iraqis did indeed learn a form of “critical thinking” in Iraqi were frequently cynical and critical about US politics in schools; however its form and content would probably be the Middle East, but strongly celebrated other instances of dismissed as uncritical and simplistic anti-Western propa- US culture, such as the 1960s peace movement (which they ganda by most “Western” observers. Most of the students remembered fondly) and the civil rights campaigns, and refl ected critically themselves on the image of a rapacious encouraged the students to celebrate these too. Students and imperialist US waiting to steal Iraq’s oil they had been were also encouraged to abandon certain cultural traits, taught.32 Crucially, these observations demonstrated that and there was a narrow framework of behaviour that made knowledge and its content were linked to territory and gov- someone a “good ISP kid.” Th e following extracts from con- ernment, and were forms of power controlled by state insti- versations with the ISP directors develop some of the com- tutions, through which the state’s sovereignty and the unity plex understandings of the US and Iraq as separate spaces of its government, population, and territory were created that were present throughout the ISP programs: and demonstrated. To “fi t in” and succeed at US colleges, Iraqi students had to acquire the modes of knowledge pro- Th e students get taught for one year by voluntary teachers to duction intimately tied to US sovereignty, that indicated US improve their English and to prepare them for the way teaching is territory as a separate physical and conceptual space. It was done in the US. In Iraq, students generally learn information off remarkable that the ISP directors considered it necessary by heart and reproduce it in the text. In the US, they have to learn that the students at ISP (who had already been preselected critical thinking and analysis and to write good essays. Th ere are according to criteria of education and personality that made

66 Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility

them conform more with US college life) received months I love to study in a perfect way. I love my school, my family and my of training to achieve an appropriate standard; their experi- relatives who are away from me due to the cruel circumstances. I ence of several students failing in the US had taught them also love helping my father with the housework. that students needed much more than English language training to “make it.” From Noor, Muna and Anfal Since the fi rst art show we had in Damascus, we felt admiration Native without a Nation and encouragement from the audience to continue painting, and In a diff erent way, education also played a central role for talk about the mixtures of colors. We were oft en asked if we ever the activities of the small, informal INGO Native without a went to art schools. Th e answer always is “ We never studied art, Nation (NWN), created and run principally by an Iraqi man it’s just what we do and like to do. We do express what we feel called Firas. NWN’s activities, which consisted of IT-skills and we convert it on our paintings.” ( … ) At the end of the meet- and creative workshops for children and teenagers, home ing we agreed that we have to be strong and keep getting better. visits to depressed and/or hard-up families, and Skype We noticed the diff erence between the fi rst and last art show, our exchanges between Iraqi and US youngsters, had developed paintings became stronger and more expressive through the sub- out of Firas’s personal social activism since his arrival in jects and the colors. Every painting had story. Now we are prepar- Syria in 2006. Further, NWN ran a website, on which Iraqi ing for another art show, with new paintings, new stories, and new teenagers could publish their stories and art work.33 A small style. group of US-based supporters helped organize the Internet exchanges with a school in upstate New York, US; fund- We will never stop looking forward. We will never be silent. ing was restricted to occasional donations of equipment from friends and small cash donations.34 Although NWN’s Mustafa, 17 projects helped Iraqis, thus making a distinction based on ( … ) national identity, the organization’s close focus on personal I will never forget that accident. I no more want to be in Iraq so narratives, friendship, and non-judgmental compassion that I don’t have to face any of this again. Th at doesn’t make my made it an example of international solidarity that did not situation any easier as I have heart failure and the medical care is depend on reconstructions of the sovereign ideal or the cat- basically non-existent. All I hope for is to know my future aft er egorization of people into sovereign types. registering with the UNHCR as a refugee.36 Although (or because) Firas, who had in-depth personal experience of UNHCR’s application of sovereignty, and that Sovereignty’s divisions are not absent from these self- of the Syrian state, was heavily aff ected by all manner of representations, and sovereign boundaries, both physical sovereign regulations, NWN’s “humanitarian” activities and imagined, structure the thoughts and practices of these emphasized personal expressions of the persons involved young people. However the key point concerning NWN’s in the projects. Th ere was little or no indication that broad activities was that they did not reproduce or use sovereignty assumptions were drawn about people’s “needs” or devia- as a reference point in the same way as other INGOs; they tions due to the categories, values, and exclusions of sover- did not contain regulations or classifi cations according to eignty. NWN’s website presented the stories of some partici- people’s position vis-à-vis an assumed, protective sover- pants without judgment-laden introductions or texts about eign. NWN did not run programs that were predesigned the situation of Iraqis as such, their illegality, and so forth.35 according to ideas about refugees based on the sovereign Many narratives concerned memories of violence experi- ideal. NWN’s semi-spontaneous interventions relied on in- enced in Baghdad, but many also articulated instances of depth personal knowledge of persons who were interested empowerment and independence. One of Firas’s stated aims in support. Rather than aiming to guide or change these was to develop a platform for young Iraqi people to express lives in any particular direction, this support created small themselves in their own words and thoughts. Th e follow- instances of success or positive feelings, which empowered ing quotes from the website illustrate their diversity and the people to continue struggling against the oft en overwhelm- aim of self-expression: ing way in which sovereignty’s exclusions were aff ecting them. By ignoring sovereignty’s framework in these small Othman Abd Al-Rahman Mohammad ways, NWN’s practices used an alternative lens through My name is Othman Abd Al-Rahman Mohammad. I am an Iraq which Iraqis in Syria were not consistently recast as outside pupil and I am proud of being an Iraqi. Despite the fact that I live sovereignty, but simply as fellow humans who had fallen on in my second country Syria, I love this country so much as well as hard times. its generous people.

67 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

A similar dynamic could be observed during the web or International Rescue Committee. Th ese INGOs were conferences that NWN organized between Iraqi youth in established members of the global, professional humanitar- Damascus and a school class in upstate New York, US. Th ese ian sector and had standard procedures and regulations on conferences, held about every six months, were conducted how to set up projects, raise and organize funds, publish via the Internet-telephony program Skype, and included annual reports, recruit staff , and so on. Th e language and video-calling, so that the partaking individuals could see programming of these organizations were fully sovereignty- each other. During the calls, the children and teenagers conform; this was particularly visible from the highly select- would introduce themselves and show each other art work ive portrayal of Iraqi life in exile, from the INGOs’ tense they had made, or narrate items they had recently studied. relationship with the Syrian state that revealed transforma- Th e focus on shared, enjoyable activities among individuals tion to how sovereignty was exercised on Syrian territory, (rather than divisive, negative experiences of imagined col- and from their dependence on funding from North Atlantic lectives) created a basis of understanding of one another’s states that carried with it a narrow framework of action. humanness, regardless of sovereignty’s territorial, govern- Th e second group of INGOs was typifi ed by their infor- mental, and population divisions. Th e empowering aspect mality, their lack of offi cial registration with state author- of the Internet’s territory-undermining technology, which ities, and their reliance on volunteers rather than paid pro- can create non-territorial communities and nations, was a fessionals. Th is divergent group of organizations included crucial aspect for this project. a semi-professional INGO with several dozens of volun- teers as well as one-man outfi ts with little external support. 4. Conclusion Consequently, these organizations’ position towards sover- Research conducted among INGOs in Damascus in 2009– eignty was eclectic. One organization, focused on helping 10 found that most INGO activities were based on and pro- young Iraqis access US colleges, demonstrated how educa- moted modern state sovereignty as the normal, safe, and tion and knowledge was linked to sovereignty, as Iraq and correct form of political organization. Iraqis in Syria, who the US were understood as separated by diff erent epistem- were the raison d’être for INGOs’ presence in Syria in the ologies and forms of learning. Here, educational practice fi rst place, were continuously depicted and treated as alien, was revealed as linking citizens to territory and government, illegal, and helpless, due to their location outside of the ter- according to rules set by the state. A second informal INGO ritory that their nationality allocated to them. Rather than ran projects emphasizing the commonalities among Iraqi considering Iraqi life in Syria as an indication for the fi ction and US youth, without reifying Iraqi life in exile accord- and weakness of the assumed unity of population, territory, ing to familiar humanitarian tropes. In this way, sovereign and government, INGO activities consistently portrayed exclusions were overcome by simple expressions of human it as an instance in which this unity had been tragically solidarity and by a form of organization in which roles of broken. From this perspective, Iraqis in Syria could never provider and benefi ciary, of leader and led, were blurred be regarded as normal instances of human life, but were and unclear. necessarily cast as deviant and in need of protection and correction through INGO interventions. Th e rich ethnographic detail provided throughout this Notes article demonstrated how highly personalized interactions, 1. Th is article stands in conversation with critical and and social programs focused on areas of life ostensibly out- anthropological analyses of modern state sovereignty as side of the remit of state intervention, contributed to the a particular, historically evolved, organization of polit- maintenance of state sovereignty’s political, social, and ical life. See, for example, Richard K. Ashley and R. B. J. spatial organization. Unlike the frequent assumption, state Walker, “Reading Dissidence/Writing the Discipline: sovereignty not only was upheld through power exercised Crisis and the Question of Sovereignty in International by state institutions, but, in the case of international NGOS, Studies,” International Studies Quarterly 34, no. 3 (1990): 367–416; Th omas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber, eds., was carried out through diff use and non-violent tech- State Sovereignty as Social Construct, Cambridge Studies niques of power that were much harder to discern than, for in International Relations, no. 46 (Cambridge and New example, the highly visible violence exercised by the Syrian York: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Galina Cornel- government as a means of creating sovereignty. isse, Immigration Detention and Human Rights Rethinking Research found that INGOs conducting aid projects for Territorial Sovereignty (Leiden and Boston: Martin Nij- Iraqis broadly fell into two separate groups. Th e fi rst group hoff , 2010); Ilana Feldman, Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, consisted of around a dozen professional and offi cially Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917–1967 (Durham: registered organizations, such as Danish Refugee Council Duke University Press, 2008); Michael Foucault, Security,

68 Migration, Identity, and Social Mobility

Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France from Palestine. TdH Syria/Lausanne became involved with 1975–1976 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Aiwa Iraqi refugees in 2007 when UNHCR was looking for any Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship established organizations that would be able to implement and Sovereignty (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006). Iraqi refugee projects. 2. Mark B. Salter, “Th e Global Visa Regime and the Political 13. Enza Di Iorio and Martine Zeuthen, “Th e Benefi ts of Technologies of the International Self: Borders, Bodies, Engaging and Building Trust with a Reluctant Govern- Biopolitics,” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 31, no. 2 ment: Th e Experience of Community Center for Iraqis (2006): 167–89; Didier Bigo, “Security and Immigration: in Syria,” in Iraq Study Group (Washington, DC: Refugee Toward a Critique of the Governmentality of Unease,” Cooperation / Middle East Institute, 2011). Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 27, no. 1 suppl. (2002): 14. Interlocutors with INGO experience in Syria reported 63–92; Peter Nyers, Rethinking Refugees: Beyond States of on an existing ban on US-based INGOs stated in Syrian Emergency (New York and London: Routledge, 2006). government documents; it remains unclear why IRC was 3. Emma Haddad, “Th e Refugee: Th e Individual between allowed to register. Sovereigns,” Global Society 17, no. 3 (2003): 297–322. 15. Interview at the IRC, 19 October 2009. 4. Ole Jacob Sending and Iver B. Neumann, “Governance 16. Ibid. to Governmentality: Analyzing NGOs, States, and Power,” 17. IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees, A Tough Road Home International Studies Quarterly 50, no. 3 (2006): 651–72. Uprooted , Syria and Iraq (New York: IRC, 5. See for example Katherine Kraft , Two Changing Spheres: February 2010); IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees, Five NGOs and Iraqis in Syria (Brea: Middle East Fellowship, Years Later, a Hidden Crisis (New York: IRC, March 2008); 2008); Geraldine Chatelard, “What Visibility Conceals: Re- “IRC Press Release: International Rescue Committee Set to Embedding Refugee Migration from Iraq,” in Dispossession Begin Aid Programmes for Iraqi Refugees in Syria,” IRC, 2 and Displacement: Forced Migration in the Middle East and September 2008. Africa, ed. Dawn Chatty (London: British Academy, 2009). 18. Danish Refugee Council, Quarterly Report (Syria) July- 6. See for example the speech of Syria’s fi rst lady at Syria’s September 2010 (Damascus: DRC, 2010); DRC Quarterly fi rst conference on NGOs and Development, organ- Report (Syria) October-December 2010 (Damascus: DRC, ized under her lead. Th e speech is available at: http:// 2011). www.presidentassad.net/ASMA_AL_ASSAD/Asma_Al_ 19. See Terres des Hommes, http://www.tdh.ch/en/countries Assad_News_2010/Asma_Al_Assad_NGO_Conference_ /syria-jordan. Inauguration_2010.htm. 20. I do not wish to belittle the suff ering of Iraqis in Syria. 7. UNHCR Syria, “UNHCR Signs Landmark Accord in Syria Th e aim is to point out that INGO rhetoric reduced the with International NGO,” press release, UNHCR Syria, 8 extremely varied existence of Iraqis in exile, which also May 2008. included successes, opportunities, strength, health, and 8. UNHCR Syria, “UNHCR Syria Update Autumn 2009”, in self-help, to that of suff ering and weakness, and in this UNHCR Syria Updates (Damascus: UNHCR Syria, 2009). contributed to the construction of sovereignty. It is also 9. Kraft , Two Changing Spheres. important to point out that the reasons to remain in exile, 10. Patricia Weiss Fagen, Iraqi Refugees: Seeking Stability in aft er the initial fl ight, were very varied, including cultural, Syria and Jordan (Washington, DC: Institute for the Study economic, and social preferences for staying in Syria, not of International Migration, Georgetown University, 2007); just fear. Frauke Riller, On the Resettlement Expectations of Iraqi 21. Interview with IRC, 19 October 2009. Incidentally my fol- Refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria (Beirut: UNHCR / low-up emails were never answered. International Catholic Migration Mission, 2009); Salome 22. Di Iorio and Zeuthen, Th e Benefi ts of Engaging and Build- Philmann and Nathalie Stiennon, 10,000 Refugees from ing Trust with a Reluctant Government. Note: SARC refers Iraq: A Report on Joint Resettlement in the European Union to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, a government controlled (Brussels: ICMC / International Rescue Committee, May health organization. 2010); IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees, A Tough Road 23. Ibid. Home: Uprooted Iraqis in Jordan, Syria and Iraq (New York: 24. I recall visits to a number of aid projects in 2007 run by IRC, February 2010); Elizabeth Ferris, Going Home? Pros- churches, who were reporting an increase in attendance of pects and Pitfalls for Large-Scale Returns of Iraqis (Bern: Iraqi visitors (i.e. these were pre-existing projects aimed Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, 2009). at all poor people). While the project attendants were cer- 11. For a good overview of the sector see OCHA, Regional tainly aware of who was an Iraqi, they emphasized their Response Plan for Iraqi Refugees (New York: United Nations, openness to anyone in need and did not keep tabs on Syr- 2010). ian and Iraqi visitors, due to a fi rm conceptual distinction 12. Terres des Hommes presents a slightly special case, as a of their social roles. Syrian branch of TdH Lausanne has been active in Damas- 25. It should be noted that the couple running ISP was by cus since decades, originally focusing on helping refugees no means wealthy or that they benefi ted from a large

69 Volume 28 Refuge Number 1

retirement. Both had worked in education and/or publish- 33. http://nativewithoutanation.blogspot.com/. ing to not highly lucrative gain. 34. In 2011, the organization had collected around $ 2,800 USD, 26. See the organization’s website, www.iraqistudentproject according to the website. .org. 35. And interestingly, the few tropes about Iraqis in Syria 27. Field note, 16 January 2010 (all names changed). exhibited by the website, in the familiar, humanitarian lan- 28. Field note, 8 February 2010 (all names changed). guage, were evidently written by the overseas supporters. 29. Field note, 22 October 2009 (all names changed). 36. All texts taken from http://nativewithoutanation.blogspot 30. David Campbell, Writing Security—United States Foreign .com/. Policy and the Politics of Identity (Manchester: Manches- ter University Press, 1992); Mark B. Salter, Barbarians and Civilization in International Relations (London: Pluto Press, Sophia Hoff man is a teaching fellow at the Geneva Graduate 2002). Institute. She received her PhD from SOAS, University of 31. Michel Foucault, Mauro Bertani, and Alessandro Fontana, London, in March 2012. Th e author wishes to thank the Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which 1975–76 (London: Allen Lane, 2003). resulted in useful revisions to clarify this article’s arguments 32. Th is point is clearly an invitation to refl ect on the forms of and position. uncritical propaganda taught in US schools, which cannot be elaborated on here.

70