Katharina Lenner

Making Refugees Work? The Politics of Integrating Syrian Refugees into the Labor Market in Jordan

Abstract Refugee response planners no longer frame Syrian refugees merely as objects of humanitarian care. Increasingly they are portrayed as enterprising subjects, whose formal integration into labor markets simultaneously can create self-sufficient actors and cure the economic woes of host countries. However, bringing together humanitarian and economic agendas is not an easy task. This article analyzes the contradictions and frictions that have emerged in the process of implementing the Jordan Compact, a political commitment to integrate Syrian refugees into the formal Jordanian labor market, and which is supposed to showcase such win-win strategies. It argues that the Jordan Compact should be seen as a policy model that has achieved enough consensus and incorporated enough disparate objectives to be labelled a ‘policy success.’ Yet, central actors have neglected core features of Jordan’s political economy and labor market, and/or the lives and survival strategies of refugees, such that their radical blueprints of transformation have been disrupted. Despite the widespread commitment to the scheme, it is thus unlikely that the Jordan Compact will both reinvigorate the Jordanian economy and offer Syrians the prospect of a dignified, self-sufficient life, an important lesson for comparable schemes being rolled out across the globe.

The politics of pledging: reflections on the London donors conference for Syria

This policy brief first looks at how the overall context of the pledging conferences for Syria has changed, and surveys the main promises and plans presented in the course of the London donors conference in Feb 2016. It then takes a critical look at the situation in Jordan – currently seen as the most promising candidate for sweeping policy change regarding its Syrian refugee population. It shows how the devil is in the details of governing Syrian labour and socio-economic development projects, and traces previous attempts for such changes. It argues that changing labour market regulations is not the silver bullet hoped for by the international community, but that real change can only come about if Europe rethinks its priorities vis-a-vis the Syrian crisis.

Jenseits ‚monarchischer Stabilität’

Mit dieser Meinung ist Abu F. nicht alleine. Wie fur andere arabische Lander ging auch fur Jordanien 2011 ein turbulentes Jahr zu Ende, das von wiederkehrenden Protesten gekennzeichnet war; auch im neuen Jahr ist noch keine Protestmudigkeit zu verzeichnen.