Written by: Amanda Jarrett
Research Questions
- What are the experience Yemeni and Syrian refugees have had with borders?
- What are the similarities and differences between refugee camps in Djibouti, Jordan and Turkey? How has the involvement of regional actors and NGOs influenced these experiences?
- How does location and historical geopolitics influence the ability for refugees to access their rights? To what effect does a state’s acceptance of the 1967 Protocol impact their treatment of refugees?
Introduction
In 1796, the term ‘refugee’ was originally defined as an individual who is fleeing from their home country in a time of distress (Jarrett, 4). Though, after the end of World War II and the mass displacement of the European Jewish community lead European and Western leaders to reevaluate the significance of a refugee and where they should be categorized in the global state system. The international refugee regime found its origins with the High Commissioner on Behalf of the League in 1921 (Jarrett, 8). When the League of Nations failed, the United Nations called for the 1951 Refugee Convention. This action began the modern era of the international refugee regime while also officially defining the term refugee. Based on the Universal Declaration of Rights, a refugee is defined as an individual who flees their home country based on “a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,’” ethnicity or culture (Boswell, 3).
Currently, there are 68.5 million displaced persons and 25.4 million refugees worldwide (Abdillahi). With multiple conflicts raging throughout the world, in places like Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, to name a few, those who are citizens of their home country to seek protection and safety by another government. Since globalization has only grown exponentially over the last few decades, one could think that states would have a more cosmopolitan mind. Unfortunately, with the expansion of globalization and interconnectedness, there has been a fire of fear that has encompassed states, most notably in the West. Fear has been a driving force for states to shut down their borders, close up shop, and find a way to limit their interaction with the rest of the world. States want a way to differentiate from what they define as ‘inside’ from the ‘outside,’ perpetuating an ‘us versus them’ mentality (Agiers). Therefore, the physicality and legality of borders have become incredibly important in the discussion and discourse of refugees.
There are some key terminology to understand in the realm of the international refugee regime and in the lives of refugees. Firstly, the term refoulement was established in Article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. This law states that a state cannot refuse entry of a refugee whose life or freedom is being threatened (Boswell, 3). Unfortunately, this law does not guarantee safety within the state because once a refugee enters they then face the onslaught of non-entree policies that have been designed to reduce access to certain rights within the state’s territory (Bell and Hirsch, 417). This then leads into the next important concept: the ‘right to have rights.’ This concept highlights the differences between the practices and norms of refugee rights in terms of the governmentality of the state. The tension observed here demonstrates the strugglefield, which highlights the complexities of interaction between state government autonomy and international law (Tazzioli).
For this research project, there will be a discussion on how the international refugee regime has succeeded and failed in delivering refugees their rights and the issues of refugees accessing their rights within their host countries. This will be further examined through gathering an understanding of the experiences that Syrian and Yemeni refugees have had with physical, legal, and social borders. Additionally, there will be an observation of the treatment of refugees within their refugee camps in their host countries. Camps in Djibouti, Jordan, and Turkey will be considered. Then there will be an attempt to understand the geopolitics within the region of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa as well as how these three states have interacted with the United Nations and the international refugee regime. Within these three scopes of the overall research, there will be an engagement of significant concepts such as: ‘spaces of governmentality,’ right to enter and refoulement, ‘right to have rights,’ and the struggle field. In the next section of this paper, there will be a synthesis of the different annotated sources in order to help draw connects and determine which aspects of the research will be addressed through them.
Background
For this research, the experiences of Syrian and Yemeni refugees will be explored. Though, first, it is important to understand the context and conditions in which these populations became refugees. Both situations were expedited by the 2011 Arab Spring.
The Syrian refugee crisis was caused by a civil war in Syria. In 2007, a severe drought impacted cities and populations that have already been marginalized and legally discriminated against by the Assad regime. Tensions rose and those who were being deprived of their basic rights and needs sparked the protests in 2011. These protests quickly turned political, which then quickly turned violent. The Assad regime initially tried to suppress the protests but then began to slightly listen to the people. Then, foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia, began supplying jihadist groups with economic resources. The emergence of Kurdish separatist groups and ISIS eventually lead to the outbreak of civil war. As a result, a total of 6.6 million Syrians are refugees and 6.1 million are internally displaced. Within the first four years of the war, Syria’s population had been halved. There are currently about 3.65 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and over 660,000 in Jordan (Jarrett, 15-16).
As for the Yemeni refugee crisis began in 2015. With a long history of being a war-torn country, Yemen’s most recent threat was the Houthi insurgency, starting back in 2004. In 2011, inspired by the protests in Tunisia, Yemeni people spent months protesting their current president. The new president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was unable to counter an attack from al-Qaeda in the state’s capital in 2012. Then in 2014, the Houthis gain control of Sanaa in August and reject a federal constitution that would have accommodated Houthi and southern grievances. In 2015, ISIS successfully carried out two major attacks in Yemen, targeting Shia mosques and leading to a full on civil war. A Saudi-led coalition made air strike attempts at Houthi targets and imposes a naval blockade. It was only in November of 2019 that the Southern Yemeni separatists and the Yemen government signed a power-sharing deal, resulting in the recent end to the civil war (BBC). With the civil war, a majority of Yemeni refugees fled to Djibouti. Over 38,000 have used the country as a transit point to get to the next and 4,398 have stayed (UNHCR).
In the next section of this paper, there will be a synthesis of the different annotated sources in order to help draw connects and determine which aspects of the research will be addressed through them.
Synthesis
There were two main sources that inspired this research topic. The first was the article by Paszkiewicz. Each source has its own perspective on the issues with the refugee crises are. Paszkiewicz points out that the issue with attitude and the nationalistic approach of most European countries, viewing refugees as a threat and a burden to their state. Also, this draws on Agiers discussion of how political leaders have used fear as a tool to stir and protect national identity and culture. This has been a narrative that a majority of Western states have constructed as an excuse to reduce access to rights and recognition of refugees. Furthermore, the articles by Buxton and Reuters and DPA add to the discussion of narratives. Buxton displays the conversation about refugees being given the power to counteract the global narrative about them that has been constructed. Through an interview with anthropologist Dr. Nathalie Peutz and pictures from the refugees themselves, Yemeni refugees in Djibouti are able to display the harsh realities of their refugee camps, showcase their families, and have a sense of recognition. Peutz’s lecture also dives much deeper into the details of her project and experiences. The other article shows a picture of a young Yemeni girl who died of malnutrition. The article discussed how this picture circulated the internet, drawing attention to a crisis that the Western world initially ignored.
The second main source that contributed to the development of this research topic was Tazzioli. This book is significant in the ways that it highlights the gaps between the norms and practices of states that accept refugees. The international refugee regime has instituted specific laws that guarantee refugees rights outside of their home country. Due to the global structure of the state system, states have the autonomy to refuse or accept certain aspects of these laws or come up with loopholes to avoid the responsibility of properly taking care of refugees within their borders. Diker and Icduygu demonstrate specifically how Turkey has mistreated refugees and has forced them into a state of permanent temporariness. Bell and Hirsch fit into this conceptual discussion and treatment of refugees because of their discussion on the ‘right to have rights,’ ‘right to enter,’ and human rights. Though, both of the two main sources deal with the need for recognition and access to rights, which were significant topics discussed in class.
Moving forward, there needs to be further exploration into the politics of the United Nations and their mechanisms since Abdillahi was the only source to really address the third research question. The source of Abboud provided important background knowledge of the circumstances in Syria and al-Thawr and the UNHCR contextualized the refugee crisis from Yemen. As for Koser, this source handled the conceptual and historical backgrounds that contribute to the entirety of the research project.
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
al-Thawr, Sabria. “Yemenis: From Hosts to Refugees.” World Bank Blogs, World Bank Group, 2 July 2015.
al-Thawr is a lecturer at the University of Sanaa, works as a research for development and gender, and has published multiple studies based on poverty, education, and policy evaluation. In this source, she details the numbers of refugees fleeing from Yemen as well as the conditions that drove them to leave. Her more empathetic writing style explains why refugees have mainly chosen to travel via boat to Djibouti. al-Thawr also says that official authorities and international humanitarian agencies have not been able to provide much information on the exact numbers and living conditions of the Yemeni refugees. With extreme heat, lack of proper living quarters, and food scarcity, refuge in Djibouti could become increasingly worse for the Yemeni. This article will help with answering the first and second research questions.
Paszkiewicz, Natalie. “What a Town in Djibouti Could Teach Europe about Refugees.” Middle East Eye, Middle East Eye, 5 Apr. 2017.
Paszkiewicz is an anthropologist whose focus is on migration and refugee studies. She has over ten years of experience working with refugees in the UK, Malta, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. In this piece, the author describes the long migration histories between Yemen and Djibouti. Mainly, Paszkiewicz focuses on the different attitudes towards refugees that the European Union has and Djibouti. She calls out Europe by saying, “It’s not because we cannot afford or manage to take in refugees. It is simply because we do not want to welcome those people on our soil.” With Djibouti being one of the poorest countries in the world, they have still been receptive toward refugees, received aid from the UNHCR, and provides some amount of their limited resources. Additionally, Paszkiewicz shows the economic disparities between the economically privileged and impoverished refugees and the sorts of resources they have access to in Djibouti. This source will mainly assist in answering the second research question.
Reference Source
Koser, Khalid. International Migration: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Koser is an expert in international refugee, asylum, internal displacement, and migration. He is currently the executive director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund. In this source, Koser explains that migration patterns vastly increased after the end of World War I and in the 1970s during the international migrant labor boom as a result of expedited globalization (Koser, 4). Within the last decade, the global financial crisis of 2008, the Arab Spring, Syrian Civil War, the Ebola crisis, and the rise of ISIL have all contributed to the newer migratory patterns (Koser, 1). Additionally, Koser outlines the various types of migrations such as those who left voluntarily versus being forced. Furthermore, this source discusses the issues with refugee camps and the various resettlement strategies. Refugee camps can protect refugees from the dangers that they are fleeing. Unfortunately, there are many dangers within the camps, like violence and sexual abuse which can have deep psychological effects on refugees (Koser, 70). This source will help shed light on the first two research questions.
Book Sources
Abboud, Samer Nassif. Syria. Polity Press, 2015.
Abboud has a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies and has published two other books since 2012. In this source, Abboud describes the crucial political climate within Syria before and during the Syrian Civil War. The Ba’ath party had ruled Syria for over fifty years and in 2011 there were protests calling for political reform. Within four years of the start of the war, over half of their population had been killed, maimed, or displaced (Abboud, 1). This source also discusses the regional and international actors that have fueled the conflict and benefit from the war. Additionally, Abboud dedicates a whole chapter to the current humanitarian crisis, detailing the refugee camps that Syrians had fled too and their treatment from camp to camp, country to country. This source will help significantly with answering all of the research questions but will mostly be able to contribute to the second research question.
Tazzioli, Martina. Spaces of Governmentality: Autonomous Migration and the Arab Uprisings. Rowan & Littlefield, 2015.
Tazzioli is a lecturer at Swansea University and visiting lecturer in Forced Migration at City University of London. She has co-authored three books in 2014, 2015, and 2016. This source is her first single-authored published book. This source is significant towards the whole research project because it introduces two very important concepts that directly affect how the other sources can be interpreted and debated. The first concept is the ‘spaces of governmentality.’ This represents the physical and legal spaces of migration, where there is a struggle over an individual’s ability to mobilize. This term describes the political history of a state or region that outlays the difficulties for stateless (anyone operating outside the state system) to move. This space describes the legal pitfalls of the international refugee regime and highlights the inadequacies of state governments to be able to handle the legality of mobility between states. The second concept of the ‘strugglefield’ works within the concept of ‘spaces of governmentality.’ The strugglefield also can be discussed as a legality or physicality. It challenges the notion and constraints of borders. It highlights the differences between the norms and practices of refugee laws and access to rights. Tazzioli’s source will serve to the overall research and more specifically to the first and third research question.
Non-Printed Sources
Buxton, Rebecca. “How Yemeni Refugees Photographed Their World.” Refugees Deeply, News Deeply, 31 May 2018.
Buxton graduated from Oxford with a Master of Science in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. She is a researcher and writer on ethics, philosophy, and forced migration. In this article, she gives greater detail as to the political climate in Yemen as well as what lead to the crisis in 2015. She is the first author to mention the involvement Saudi Arabia has had in Yemen. Throughout this article, she interviews Dr. Nathalie Peutz and her colleagues about how their photography project has provided an outlet for Yemeni refugees to find their voices in the midst of chaos. Importantly, in the images, one sees households, camps, and families with their best clothes on as a way to portray refugees as more human. This is set to contrast the standard image of refugees overcrowding the spaces the occupy, creating a narrative that refugees are a burden and animalistic. This article will speak more to the first research question in terms of the social and cultural boundaries that refugees face.
DPA, and Reuters. “Yemen Girl Who Became Symbol of Humanitarian Crisis Dies at 7.” Haaretz.com, Haaretz Newspaper, 2 Nov. 2018.
This article is about the seven year old girl that brought the world’s attention to Yemen’s crisis. Food insecurity, malnutrition, disease outbreaks, and failing healthcare seemed to encompass Yemen. The use of the girl’s picture by the media sparked worldwide attention that was not paying any attention to the war raging within Yemen. The use of this article will mainly be used as a discussion on Eurocentrism, how extreme a scenario has to be for the West to ‘care,’ the use of a child to spread a message, and the questioning of ‘Othering’ and second-class citizenry. This will speak to the overall research project, but more specifically help answer research questions one and two.
Peutz, Dr. Nathalie. “A Tale of Two Camps: Divisions in a Refugee ‘Village’ Displaced and Constituted by War.” Muslim Studies Program, International Center, 6 November 2019, East Lansing, MI. Keynote Address.
Peutz is an anthropologist who has had field experience working with refugees in Djibouti. At this lecture, she dove into the intricacies of the Yemeni refugee experience in Djibouti. She details the refugee camp of Markazi and the changes that have occurred over the years. An interesting note is that the Saudi government donated air-conditioned households for the refugees, but have not been functional for family living and therefore are unable to use the units to their full capacity. Additionally, the Yemeni refugees have restrictions on their mobility, especially with their camp on the state’s border. Refugees feel that they have been purposely isolated from the rest of Djibouti society and being tossed around like footballs between Djibouti and the Horn of Africa. This source will contribute to answering the first two research questions.
Scholarly Articles
Abdillahi, Mohamed Ahmed. “The Refugee Crisis in Djibouti and the Role of the United Nations.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 23, no. 12, 29 Nov. 2018, pp. 43–54.
Adbillahi graduated from Istanbul Aydin University and has published this article with the IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science. In the article, he stated that he had field experience in Djibouti working with Kow Media Foundation and the Lutheran World Foundation. Adbillahi can allude to the conditions of Yemeni refugees in the Markazi refugee camp. He describes the atmosphere of attitude towards refugees from the host population and government as non-hostile. He says that the local population and the Djiboutian military seemingly doing more for the refugees in terms of supplies than the United Nations. Abdillahi also discusses how the educational curriculum in the refugee camp has not been accepted nor approved by the Djibouti government, making refugee children’s diplomas invalid for job applications. This source will mainly speak to the second research question and will also shed some light on the migration history of Djibouti.
Bell, Nathan and Asher Lazarus Hirsch. “The Right to Have Rights as a Right to Enter: Addressing a Lacuna in the International Refugee Protection Regime.” Human Rights Review, vol. 18, 2017, pp. 417-437.
This piece by Bell and Hirsch conceptually draws from Hannah Arendt’s ‘right to have rights’ and the complexities of refoulement. “While refugees are protected from refoulement once they make it to the jurisdiction or territory of a state, they face an ever-increasing array of non-entree policies designed to stymie access to state territory” (Bell and Hirsch, 417). With these policies there is a protection gap between the jurisdiction of the states and the refugee’s right to access their rights. Another aspect of the article that was important was the distinction between natural and human rights. Natural rights are the basic necessities and securities. Human rights extend beyond that to include access to the civil, political, and social spheres. This source will help lay down the conceptual foundation for the research topic while also speaking to the first research question.
Diker, Eleni and Ahmet Icduygu. “Syrian Refugees in Turkey.” Oxford Bibliographies, 2017.
Diker has a degree in Public Policy and Human Development with a specialization in Migration Studies from United Nations University. Icduygu is the dean of the political science college at Koc University in Turkey. He has held visiting fellow positions at universities around the world. For this source, Diker and Icduygu will be used for their descriptions of Turkey’s treatment of Syrian refugees. Turkey views refugees as ‘guests’ and has previously denied refugees access to their rights. Additionally, the narrative of temporariness is pushed with the use of this terminology, making it difficult for refugees to integrate and participate in society. This source will be used to help answer the first research question.
“Djibouti—Response to the Yemen Situation.” Inter-Agency Operational Update, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. September, 2018, pp.1-8.
This article comes as an Inter-Agency Operational Update from the UNHCR. This piece lays out the specific numbers of Yemeni refugees who have entered Djibouti, those who decided to say within the state, and provides a percentage of how many Yemeni refugees are under the age of eighteen. The operational context portion described the achievements and pitfalls of the UN in the areas of protection, education, health, food security and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter and NFIS, access to energy, community empowerment and self-reliance, and their progress on durable solutions. Additionally, it also shows who they have partnered with and where their funding comes from. This source will mainly help answer the third research question.
Bibliography
Abboud, Samer Nassif. Syria. Polity Press, 2015.
Abdillahi, Mohamed Ahmed. “The Refugee Crisis in Djibouti and the Role of the United Nations.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 23, no. 12, 29 Nov. 2018, pp. 43–54.
Agiers, Michel. Borderlands: Towards an Anthropology of the Cosmopolitan Condition. Polity, 2016.
al-Thawr, Sabria. “Yemenis: From Hosts to Refugees.” World Bank Blogs, World Bank Group, 2 July 2015.
Bell, Nathan and Asher Lazarus Hirsch. “The Right to Have Rights as a Right to Enter: Addressing a Lacuna in the International Refugee Protection Regime.” Human Rights Review, vol. 18, 2017, pp. 417-437.
Boswell, Christina. The Ethics of Refugee Policy. Ashgate, 2005.
Buxton, Rebecca. “How Yemeni Refugees Photographed Their World.” Refugees Deeply, News Deeply, 31 May 2018.
Diker, Eleni and Ahmet Icduygu. “Syrian Refugees in Turkey.” Oxford Bibliographies, 2017.
“Djibouti–Response to the Yemen Situation.” Inter-Agency Operational Update, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). September, 2018, pp.1-8.
DPA, and Reuters. “Yemen Girl Who Became Symbol of Humanitarian Crisis Dies at 7.” Haaretz.com, Haaretz Newspaper, 2 Nov. 2018.
Koser, Khalid. International Migration: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Jarrett, Amanda. “The International Refugee Regime and the Syrian Refugee Crisis.” Independent Study, Professor Lucas. 16 August, 2019.
Paszkiewicz, Natalie. “What a Town in Djibouti Could Teach Europe about Refugees.” Middle East Eye, Middle East Eye, 5 Apr. 2017.
Peutz, Dr. Nathalie. “A Tale of Two Camps: Divisions in a Refugee ‘Village’ Displaced and Constituted by War.” Muslim Studies Program, International Center, 6 November 2019, East Lansing, MI. Keynote Address.
Tazzioli, Martina. Spaces of Governmentality: Autonomous Migration and the Arab Uprisings. Rowan & Littlefield, 2015.
“Yemen Profile – Timeline.” BBC News, BBC, 6 Nov. 2019.
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