WURSHIJL Final Report

Wellbeing and Protracted Urban Displacement: Refugees and Hosts in Jordan and Lebanon IDS_Master Logo Dolf te Lintelo, Rajith Lakshman, Wissam Mansour, Emma Soye, Teo Ficcarelli and Will Woodward April 2018 This project was supported by NWO-WOTRO, through the Security and Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings research programme. Additional funding was leveraged from Save the Children UK to support the literature review. Acknowledgements: the authors gratefully acknowledge the important inputs provided by various colleagues as part of this project. Expert review was provided by Professor Charles Watters at the University of Sussex during various stages of the project to guide and refine the report. Clive Robertson, creative director, and colleagues at RealTime went beyond the call of duty to create and produce the Participatory Video, which itself could not have been done without the wholehearted support from Naba’a community members, notably Hayat Fakherldine, Iman Atama, Saada Dadash, Rabab Iskouralam, Rene Braiteh, and Manaal Ghalaf. Samuel Brett at Impact Initiatives and Hart Ford at Acted expertly led the project activities undertaken in Amman and Beirut. Contents Executive summary v 1 Introduction 1 2 Refugee flows in Jordan and Lebanon: A background 5 3 Conceptual framework 9 4 Methodology 11 4.1 Inception and end of project ‘research to policy’ workshops 12 4.2 Systematic review of academic literature 12 4.3 Re-examination of existing primary data on Syrian refugees in urban Jordan 14 4.4 Grey literature 16 4.5 Policy analysis 16 4.6 Participatory Video 16 4.7 Reflection on impact pathway 16 5 Modalities of reception 18 5.1 Governance context – Lebanon 19 5.2 National policy and law in Lebanon 19 5.2.1 Border regimes 20 5.2.2 Registration 21 5.2.3 Legal status: residence permits, sponsorship and birth certificates 22 5.2.4 Economic participation 26 5.2.5 Housing 29 5.3 Local urban responses: municipalities and other actors 32 6 Jordan 39 6.1 Governance context – Jordan 39 6.2 National policy and law in Jordan 39 6.2.1 Border regimes 39 6.2.2 Legal status: residence permits, bail outs and birth certificates 41 6.2.3 Economic participation 47 6.2.4 Housing 52 6.3 Local urban responses: municipalities and other actors 53 7 Wellbeing of urban refugees and their hosts in Jordan and Lebanon: A systematic review of the academic literature 57 7.1 Registration 57 7.1.1 Registration and status determination: material wellbeing 58 7.1.2 Registration and status determination: subjective wellbeing 60 7.1.3 Registration and status determination: Relational wellbeing 61 7.1.4 Conclusion 62 7.2 Housing 63 7.2.1 Housing: material wellbeing 63 7.2.2 Housing: subjective wellbeing 65 7.2.3 Housing: relational wellbeing 68 7.2.4 Conclusion 71 iii 7.3 Economic participation 72 7.3.1 Economic participation: material wellbeing 73 7.3.2 Economic participation: subjective wellbeing 76 7.3.3 Economic participation: relational wellbeing 78 7.3.4 Conclusion 82 8 Conclusions and recommendations 84 References 91 Appendix A Legal distinctions in Lebanon and Jordan: Syrians, Palestinian Refugees from Syria and Iraqis 108 Appendix B Systematic search strategy for academic literature 112 Appendix C Stakeholder maps 115 Appendix D Statistical comparison across five cities in Jordan 117 Appendix E Shortlist of Impact initiative’s primary datasets 118 Figures Figure 2.1 Registered Syrian refugees in the region. 5 Figure 2.2 UNHCR registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon 7 Figure 3.1 The triangle of wellbeing 9 Figure 4.1 Research process and methodology 11 Figure 4.2 Systematic review of academic studies 13 Figure 4.3 Night light based urban map of Jordan (2013) 15 Figure 5.1 Changing residency policy in Lebanon 25 Figure 5.2 Households that have completed each step in birth registration for children born in Lebanon 25 Figure 5.3 Interlocking policy – Lebanon 26 Figure 5.4 The policy environment regarding economic participation for Syrians and Palestinians in Lebanon over time 29 Figure 6.1 Changing border regimes in Jordan 40 Figure 6.2 Syrian families in urban Jordan having at least one member holding a valid MoI card (2015–16) 44 Figure 6.3 Syrian families in urban Jordan having at least one member without valid MoI card (2015–16) 45 Figure 6.4 Policy change regarding legal residency status in Jordan 46 Figure 6.5 Interlocking policies – Jordan 46 Figure 6.6 Accommodation in tented settlements or tents 53 Figure 6.7 Satisfaction with municipal services 55 Figure 7.1 Households that reported having all household members with legal residency 58 Figure 7.2 Feeling part of a community 66 Figure 7.3 Accessing shelter causes tension in the community 69 Figure 7.4 Eviction of Syrian refugees in Jordan 71 Figure 7.5 Reasons why accessing employment causes tension in the community 77 Tables Table 2.1 Syrian refugee numbers in various host countries 5 Table 2.2 Major forced migration movements to Jordan 6 Table 8.1 Policy trends Lebanon and Jordan 2011–2017 84 iv Executive summary This research project was conducted between April 2017 and February 2018, aiming to answer the following research questions: 1. What modalities of reception drive what kind of gendered wellbeing outcomes for refugee and host communities in cities across Jordan and Lebanon? What explains for these outcomes? 2. In what ways can policymakers, practitioners and donors support modalities of reception that promote gender equitable, improved wellbeing outcomes for urban refugees and host communities? The project used the Bath Wellbeing in Development framework to analyse material, relational and subjective wellbeing outcomes for hosts and refugee groups. It conducted a systematic review of secondary materials, and combined this novel analysis of existing datasets for Syrian refugees in Jordan, a synthesis of policy analyses and a limited set of semi-structured interviews with key policy and practice stakeholders. The project also developed a Participatory Video together with host and refugee communities in Lebanon. Here we present some of the synthesis findings from the research, capturing the connections between modalities of reception and gendered wellbeing outcomes. Urban modalities of reception The war in Syria, now in its eighth year, has led to the mass exodus of the Syrian people. Lebanon and Jordan have achieved a remarkable feat by hosting millions of refugees, with many having located to urban areas, where the great majority of local populations are already situated. The war has slowed down the Lebanese and Jordanian economies. Simultaneously, the refugee influx has put tremendous pressure on urban systems providing housing and basic services (health, education, water, sanitation, electricity and waste collection) that were already strained prior to the crisis. The mass arrival has seen accelerated house rent inflation, severely diminished water supplies, daily power outages, higher unemployment rates, rising poverty, and the inability of health-care and education providers to cope with demand. Charged regional politics are severely challenging delicate societal and inter-communal harmony. There are large discrepancies in perceptions of inequality and threats between Syrian refugees and host groups. Many refugees complain about their discriminatory treatment by local business and state institutions, whereas hosts consider Syrian refugees as disproportionately benefiting from international aid and an economic threat. We broadly conceptualised ‘modalities of reception’ comprising of those (formal and informal) arrangements, policies, programmes and implementation practices that constitute more or less enabling environments for refugee and host communities to enjoy safe, dignified and worthwhile lives and to achieve wellbeing, as people themselves define this. The relations that Syrian refugees have with governments in Jordan and Lebanon often involve national level authorities, as both countries have highly centralised policymaking processes. Frequent changes in national policies and complex bureaucratic processes (e.g. regarding registration, residency, work) make it hard for refugees to both stay updated on their obligations regarding temporary stay, and entitlements and protections that may be enjoyed. Moreover, government officials have a significant level of discretion in applying policies, creating further uncertainty, arbitrariness and unevenness in their application. Yet, relations with local urban/municipal authorities are important too, as the latter bear the brunt of dealing with the everyday challenges that the refugee influx poses. Local responses are, however, largely ad hoc, and little evidence is discerned of self-initiated strategic plans v or policies to manage the influx. In Lebanon but not in Jordan, mayoral initiatives were noted, apparently generating both positive (e.g. hosting social events for hosts and refugees) and negative (e.g. curfews; closure of informal businesses) wellbeing outcomes. However, while likely to be significant, these occasions are poorly documented and their wellbeing effects under-analysed. In the early years of the crisis, humanitarian actors largely sidestepped municipalities, facing both low capacity and centralisation of policy. However, it is increasingly recognised that this is not sustainable and while many new initiatives have emerged that do better, there are opportunities to take better stock of lessons learnt from these efforts. Informal settlements attract the poorest Syrian refugees and other migrants, but

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