Tackling the causes for flight? The changing features and effects of German refugee policy in Jordan

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Jordanian and Syrian female plumbers present their skills

Project summary

Building on a critical ethnographic approach to policy-making, the fieldwork for this pilot study sought to trace the massive expansion and map the current scope of German-funded interventions in Jordan.

Project details

Location: Germany/Jordan

Year(s): 2018

Project director(s): Katharina Lenner (University of Bath)

Lead institutions and funding:

  • CBRL

Project description

The pilot study award made possible two months of fieldwork in Jordan, as well as background research in Germany, about the changing features and effects of German refugee policy in Jordan.

Building on a critical ethnographic approach to policy-making, the fieldwork for this pilot study sought to trace the massive expansion and map the current scope of German-funded interventions in Jordan. Moreover, it sought to gain insights into the everyday dynamics of these policies by focusing on a number of projects promoting employment of Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians. To this end, it analysed dynamics in and around a large Cash for Work  Project, and a project training men and women to become plumbers.

At the end of the fieldwork period, it brought together stakeholders from across different projects and organisations to discuss preliminary research findings, as well as broader issues and challenges of employment-oriented programming. An extended roundtable report including my research findings was produced and used for dissemination and discussion with stakeholders and interested colleagues in Jordan and Germany; research findings were also presented in a variety of formats (academic conferences and more informal, policy–oriented discussions).

Future work will focus on gendered dimensions of cash for work projects with a view to better understanding group-specific understandings of what constitutes decent work.

Project bibliography

Lenner, Katharina. 2020. Tackling the causes for flight? The changing
features and effects of German refugee policy in Jordan. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2018-2019, p 18.

Published:26 November 2021

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