Humanitarian, Development, and Security Concerns in Jordan’s Syrian Refugee Crisis

Date Presented:

Abstract:

This project enters the academic conversation of whether a “rights-based approach” or a “human welfare/human development-based approach” is a more appropriate mechanism for bettering lives in response to a humanitarian crisis. The hypothesis is that the two must go hand in hand in order for a short-term response to be paved into a long-term reality. The thesis uses the case study of policy set for Syrian refugees in Jordan by various UN agencies and international NGOs working in concert. I conducted thirty interviews of these policymakers in Amman, Jordan during the summer of 2015, and analyzed dozens of UN and NGO reports produced during that time period regarding the approach to the refugee crisis and its response priorities. I discovered that though the Syrian refugee response in Jordan does represent a blended rights and development approach termed “resilience,” the approach has been a haphazard political move meant to placate the security concerns of the Jordanian government and Western donors, rather than a guiding principle for improving refugees’ lives.