Resources to Learn About Refugees

Though World Refugee Day (June 20th) is long past, refugees are still very much in the news today, as hundreds of thousands flee violence in their home countries and move towards Europe. For those interested in learning more about refugees through online photos, articles, and interactive features, educational blogger Larry Ferlazzo has compiled an impressive list of resources to learn more about this topic.

An Empty Refugee Camp

Azraq Refugee Camp, Photo: Alisa Reznick/Al Jazeera

You probably imagine a refugee camp as being overcrowded with people. Yet there is a refugee camps that is almost empty due to the harsh living conditions refugees face there.

Azraq refugee camp opened its gates over one year ago to meet the soaring numbers of refugees fleeing Syria. Yet, despite the offer of a shelter for every resident, the camp stands mostly empty. This is because of the living conditions in the camp. Located on a barren piece of land in the northern Jordanian desert, the camp houses 18,500 refugees, with 10,000 under the age of 18. But the residents describe the living conditions as harsh, with scorching summer heat, dust storms, and fierce winds. Schools services and education programs are available for children, but high temperatures keep children at home. The camp has no electricity, and so refugees cannot use fans or refrigerators inside their shelters. Furthermore, the prices for food have increased, and with a $29 per month food voucher, families cannot afford basic food items.

 For more on Azraq, see this photo essay from AlJazeera.

A Job and a Bicycle: One Experience of Child Labor in Beirut

In this video, UNICEF highlights one of its partner organizations, Himaya in Lebanon, through the story of Ahmad. Amad is a 15-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, who narrates his struggles living and working in Beirut.

The video shows the challenges of child labor. A child cannot just transition from working and supporting his family to attending school. The child may not have attended school before. Plus the impact on the family economy must be considered, as these children are often supporting their families financially. Himaya rightly notes that child labor must be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Waiting in Turkey's "Baking Camp"

UNHCR just released a news report on the conditions at Suruç camp, the largest refugee camp in Turkey. Built by UNICEF and Turkey's Emergency and Disaster Management Presidency (AFAD) in the middle of 2014, Suruç now houses 25,000 mostly Kurdish refugees from Kobane, Syria.

The article describes the overwhelming heat inside the camp, where "the sun offers relentless heat and pitiless light which bounces off soil bleached almost white." Understandably, families tend to stay inside their tents to escape the heat of the day.

Suruç Refugee Camp, Photo: Associated Press

What are the implications for children's mobility in these contexts? What are their lives like when the environment does not allow for freedom of movement? How do families cope with earning livelihoods in these contexts?

Syrian Refugees in Jordan

A few days ago, I received the following email from my friend Yuhki Ohnogi, who I met when working in Nablus. I thought that it would be important to share:

I'm right now in Irbid, north of Jordan. Since May, I've been taking an Arabic course here. Irbid is located very close to the border with Syria and 2km away from Irbid is the second largest refugee camp in the world- Zaatari refugee camp. The camp is accommodating 150,000 refugees from Syria. Although they are free from all miserable fighting, their life is far from comfortable. Because of lack of support from international communities, every day they wake up to ask themselves as to how to survive for a day. Even though they are provided with basic living items, they have to sell them to make some money to buy food. Technically, they can not work in Jordan without going through an official work permit process, which is now impossible. Recently, I came across this organisation called "Voice". They work with the Syrian youth who are living in Zaatari refugee camp. They interview the people in the camp and collect their stories.

Yukhi also included this link to the organization's website.

Syrian Refugess in Jordan: Longing for Home

About 12,000 Syrians are calling the tents and trailers of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan home, at least for the foreseeable future. Today, the New York Times features an interactive website exploring the Syrian refugee experience. The web feature explores the physical environment that the Syrian refugees are living in, as well as a deep longing to return home.

[Photo: Lynsey Addario, The New York Times]

Current State of Refugees

This weekend, I am attending the 6th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This morning, Furio de Angeles, UNHCR Canada Representative, provided some updated and current statistics on the status of refugees:

• 15.5 million refugees in the world
• 26.5 million displaced populations (under the traditional definition of displaced because of conflict in their home country
• 3.5 million registered stateless people in the world; however, the complete number of stateless people is closer to 12 million

There are two categories of people not included in UNHCR's traditional definition of a "person-of-concern":

• persons displaced by natural disaster are currently not considered refugees or "traditionally displaced
• non-permanent residents (temporary foreign workers) displaced by political violence in places such as Libya and Syria

Mr. de Angeles commented upon four current contexts - Syria, Mali, DRC, South Sudan - that are drawing upon most of UNHCR's resources now. Yes, conflict in Somalia and Afghanistan are also important and ongoing, but the above conflicts are emerging and pressing now.

Regarding Syria, the crisis is producing a shocking 7000 refugees each day. Just to put this in perspective, in 2011, there were 2000 new refugees each day worldwide. Syria is a unique context, because 70% of refugees have been displaced from urban settings. Another important aspect is that children are becoming defining victims of this conflict. Unfortunately, Mr. de Angeles reported that there is currently a 70% funding gap in terms of what UNHCR needs to address the needs of people of concern as a result of the Syrian conflict.

Mali, DRC, and South Sudan represent more typical refugee contexts. South Sudan is facing a health crisis among it's refugee population. There is currently a Hepatitis B outbreak in the region, affecting thousands of refugees.

Land Day

Land Day is approaching tomorrow (Friday 30 March). It is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of an event in 1976. In response to the Israeli government's plan to expropriate thousands of acres of land for "security and settlement purposes", a strike and marches were organized in Palestinian towns throughout the West Bank. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six Palestinians were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested. For this year's Land Day, Palestinian activists are organizing a Global March to Jerusalem intended to bring attention to the situation here and to recognize Jerusalem as a vital and controversial site for both Palestinians and Israelis. The March will engage people from all over the world, who will show their support for Palestinians by marching as close to Jerusalem as they can get considering existing country borders and political barriers.

Two days out of the past week, I have heard gunfire in the distance. I have not been able to pinpoint exactly where the gunfire is coming from. But, like the Israeli military jets continually flying over Nablus, it is a reminder that the occupation is ubiquitous. For example, the following happened in the past week in Nablus:

• last Friday, an 8-year-old boy was injured by an explosion in the village of Qaryut; apparently, the devise was set there by the Israeli army during training exercises.
• on Monday, the Israeli army detained three men for unknown reasons in the Nablus city center.
• on Tuesday, a 24-year-old farmer from the Nablus village of Iraq Burin sustained head injuries when settlers from the nearby Yizhar settlement threw rocks at him.
• and, yesterday, settlers blocked the entrance of the village of Beit Dajan, protesting the reopening of a road to Nablus city.
  

These events were tempered by a unity rally held in Nablus City center last week, which called for an end to the division between the political parties in the West Bank in Gaza, to more effectively resist the occupation. Of course, this is controversial, because the Palestinian division is between Fatah and Hamas, the latter which has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the EU, US, Canada, Israel, and Japan.

In terms of my research with children and families, things are going slowly but surely. I have finished three interviews in Balata Refugee Camp. The interviews have been extremely interesting. Each interview was supposed to be the parent and two children (older and younger), but the whole family is there for the whole interview. So it's usually Mom and her 10 children, and maybe a sister-in-law or a bunch of young cousins as well. It's definitely a different kind of methodology (more like a family focus group) using a collaborative process, with every member of the household contributing a piece, which is more culturally representative of how families operate here. I can distract the kids with some mapping and drawing exercises and then talk to the adult. But I also try to spend more than half of the interview speaking with the children to get their views. Parents have commented on how great it is that the research cares about what children think.

Some of the families' stories are difficult to hear. Two separate families told me about how the Israeli army has entered their homes and broken down the wall between their wall and their neighbor in order to arrest their neighbors. (The image to the right is of one family's wall that was broken down and is now repaired with cement.) This practice, known in Israeli army parlance as "walking through walls", is the action in which soldiers create holes in the walls of Palestinian homes in order to avoid the streets, roads, alleys, and courtyards of the community, where they fear being attacked by militants. Though an effective military strategy, the “penetration of war into the private domain of the home” is described by Weizman (2007) as “ the most profound form of trauma and humiliation” (p. 194). My study participants have called it "insulting". In another house I went to, the 6-year-old son was asleep on a mat on the floor near where we were conducting the interview. The mother told me that the Israeli army had been in the refugee camp a few days ago, and when the boy saw them, he involuntarily urinated and has been incontinent since then. This is a common symptom in school-age children who have experienced traumatic stress. These cases are not the majority, though, and there are plenty of happy, bright, and energetic children who "seem" impervious to the effects of occupation.

Peace for One Night in Bethlehem

Bethlehem was just another Palestinian village until the day that Jesus was born. It wasn't until around 300 AD that the prophetic message that Jesus was born became a religious movement, and Bethlehem quickly became a prosperous and fortified city, as well as a popular place for religious pilgrims, with many churches and monastaries built in the area. In the Crusader times (1099-1187 and 1228-1144), kings were crowned in Bethlehem as a symbolic connection to the birthplace of Jesus, and it was promoted as the seat of many religious parishes, including Episcopal and Roman Catholic communities.

Confronted by the injustices of the British colonial system as well as the Zionist threat in the first half of the 1900s, residents of Bethlehem firmly supported the cause of Palestinian nationalism. In the 1920s and 1930s, Palestinians in Bethlehem mounted several public campaigns against the British law that repealed citizenship of Palestinians but granted citizenship to Jewish immigrants. In response, Britain cracked down hard on representatives of Bethlehem. For example, in 1938, the mayor of Bethlehem, Issa Bandak, was deported by the British occupation authorities after his outspoken criticism of the British occupation. Much as Bethlehem housed Joseph, Mary, and the newborn Jesus, Bethlehem subsequently became a sanctuary for countless Palestinian refugees expelled from their villages. According to the Alternative Tourism Group (2008), population figures rose from 9,000 to nearly 20,000, while an additional 40,000 refugees stayed temporarily in Bethlehem on their way to exile in the West Bank, Jordan, or other Arab states.

I visited Bethlehem in May 2010. Today, the Bethlehem district constitutes the towns of Beit Sahour to the east and Beit Jala to the west, as well as three refugee camps (Aida, Beit Jibrin or 'Azza, and Deheisheh) to total 76,000 people. Dominated by minarets and bell towers, the city affirms its religious diversity: it has a Muslim majority (67%) and a strong Christian minority (33%). Almost every Christian community is represented: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian, Lutheran and Syrian, all sharing the same Arab-Palestinian culture.

Nevertheless, there is much in-fighting between the various Christian groups over control of various religious sites in Bethlehem. For example, despite being a place sacred to all Christians, the Grotto of the Nativity (see photo at left) - marking the exact place of Jesus's birth - has been the object of bitter dispute between the Christian communities. In 1847, the star was stolen, and the Sultan in Istanbul was asked to arbitrate: he chose to freeze the controversy with a status quo, which pleased no one, neither France, as "the custodian of holy places, nor Tsarist Russia, as protector of all Orthodox subjects in the Ottoman empire. Finally, the star was replaced with a copy. However, prolonged disagreement over custody of these holy places served as pretext for hostilities between the great imperialist powers leading to the Crimean War of 1853-1856, with England, France, and Turkey opposing Russia. Even today, there is a complicated and detailed plan of ownership of particular places and hours for certain religious celebrations and feasts. If one religious community fails to honor another 's plan, for instance by walking down the wrong staircase at an inopportune time, then this is cause for shutting down a whole section of Bethlehem in order to rectify the situation.

The hopeful news is that Bethlehem is celebrating its merriest Christmas in years, according to this story from NPR. Mild weather, a booming economy, and thriving tourism (see photo at left) are all helping to bring holiday cheer to the West Bank town. Christian tourists, Palestinian Christians, and even Palestinian Muslims from Bethlehem's refugee camps prayed side-by-side on Christmas Eve. One woman from the camp said, "Because of the hard situation and the pressure we are living in, we take advantage of any joyful moment and bring our children to play."

It's promising to see peace in the little town of Bethlehem for even one night. But let us not forget the wall that continues to surround Bethlehem (as well as the rest of the West Bank and Gaza), the growing number of illegal Israeli settlements that are being built and are eating away at Palestinian land, the failure of peaceful negotiations between the leaders of the region, and the reality that after celebrating side-by-side with people of all faiths, many Palestinian families must return to refugee camps rather than to their rightful homes.

(separation barrier near Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem)

Compassion at Damascus Gate

Today, I left Jerusalem for Amman, where I will be returning to Canada. As I was leaving my hotel to find a taxi to take me to the Jordanian border, I saw a large gathering outside Damascus Gate, one of the largest entrances to the Old City. I asked a bystander what was happening, and he said that the Israeli military had closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites for Muslims, after rumors that there was going to be a protest over Israel's actions against the Gaza aid flotilla.

For some Palestinians who come to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they must wait months, or even years, to get a permit from the Israeli government to visit Jerusalem. There were men pleading with Israeli officers to let them enter to Old City to pray. But the military was steadfast. My initial thought was that a denial of people's right to pray might cause more protests, and defeat Israel's intent to quell a protest. This is yet another example of a Israeli policy that exacerbates the opposite of its stated intent.

I heard later (from Anna Baltzer's blog) that when the call to prayer started, the men got as close to the walls as possible, and started praying, some kneeling in the dirt without prayer mats. Calm overcame the area, as the men (young children and elderly alike) bowed down in unison, praying. When the imam began his sermon, everyone listened intently. Some expected the sermon to address the injustices that the Palestinians were experiencing at the moment, but instead it was about compassion in Islam. The imam asked that their prayers be accepted even though they could not be inside the walls of the mosque. He said, "Someday, we will live in a place where it doesn't matter what color your skin is, or where you're from." And the group answered a collective "Amen."

(Above photo: Anna Baltzer)

Bethlehem

Today, I visited Bethlehem, where I met with local organizations working with children. I took this opportunity to walk to Aida refugee camp. Aida camp, plagued for years by Israeli military restrictions, curfews, and incursions, is in the shadow of the separation barrier, and words and drawings of protest mark its 9-meter-high concrete walls. [See the photo of the separation barrier that runs through Aida refugee camp.] The area that I was walking through was a once vibrant neighborhood, but had been devastated to accommodate the barrier and an expanding Israeli military base, with homes and businesses confiscated. When I checked the news that evening, I read that Aida camp had been without water for two days.

Youth Theatre at Balata Refugee Camp

I have been spending time in the Balata refuge camp, thinking that this might be someplace where I will focus my research. Today, I was invited to observe a youth theatre group at the Youth Centre, which was full of extremely energetic adolescents, who were physically incapable of stillness. They had 15 minutes to prepare a short performance about a problem facing the camp, coming up with the script, dialogue, and props themselves. They closed the curtains and spent the whole time in a frantic racket preparing, while every few minutes one of them would poke his or head out of the curtain with a big smile and a wave. The performance was an extremely violent depiction of IDF soldiers opening fire on a school. There was much shooting, tear gas, death, and destruction as the children acted out the lengthy skit. The audience - consisting of the group moderator, his humourless partner, and me - all had our gaping mouths covered with our hands, trying to hide our discomfort and deciding how best to discuss this

with the children after. After a debriefing with the children, they decided to perform a reprisal in which the soldiers were much less violent, and instead formed a barrier of interlinking arms across the stage not allowing the other children to pass from one side to another. This reiteration illustrated the current occupation in a very poignant way, as mobility is greatly restricted; however, the first performance was not forgotten.

Balata Refugee Camp

Today, I visited Balata Refugee camp, which is the largest refugee camp in the West Bank, home to 25,000 refugees, some who have been there since it was created in 1953. With 75% of Balata's refugee population under 18-years-old, there are numerous programs for children and youth.

In Witness in Palestine, Anna Baltzer writes: "Balata sees more violence and incursions than most other places in Palestine, which is evident as you walk through the camp. There are bullet holes in every house, school, and store. The children are tougher than those in other Palestinian communities, and their parents are more suspicious. But the barrier is easily broken with a little Arabic and indication of solidarity" (p.47).

Their resilience is illustrated in the colorful graffitti marking the concrete walls around the camp: "Boycott Israel, Free Palestine," and "Love Palestine, Hate Racism, 1 People, 1 World!" The alleys between the UN-constructed 4-story buildings were tiny – just a few feet across, windows into dark rooms facing each other, so everything said in one house is heard in the next.

Naqba Photo Exhibit in Nablus

Nablus hosted a photo exhibit to com- memorate 62 years since Al-Naqba, or "The Catastro- phe". After a variety of partition plans, even proposals to transfer the Palestinian Arab population, on November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly approved a partition plan - Resolution 181. Although Jewish people owned 6.5% of Palestinian land in private or collective property holdings, the Jewish state was awarded 56.5% of the territory of Palestine, and the Arab state was awarded 42.9% in the UN partition plan. Thus began the Arab-Israeli war, which brought independence for Israel and "catastrophe' for Palestinians. At the start of the 1948 war, 940,000 Palestinians lived in what was to become Israel. By the end of the war, 150,000 Palestinians remained in areas under Israeli control. Though israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion frequently said, "Israel did not expel a single Arab," it is clear that many were forced to leave by Israeli military units.

Interactionism and Self in the World

Humanitarianism identifies groups of displaced persons (e.g., refugees and internally displaced persons) as dependent on outside assistance. Rather than being perceived as individuals, people in need are viewed collectively, identified by their ‘problems’ and oftentimes stripped of their individual rights and self-dignity. Interactions between humanitarian ‘helpers’ and the recipients of their help constitutes a power relationship, with the recipients held in a position of obligation to the benefactors. The distribution of goods and services to these populations indicates not simply a material transaction, but also a moral transaction. As an individual in one of these groups, how might one perceive oneself and others and what are the implications of these perceptions? How do perceptions of ‘otherness’ color interactions and meanings developed through these interactions?

The theory of symbolic interactionism contributes to our understanding of the different meanings attributed to individuals and groups in various settings. In differentiating between the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’, Mead (1934) develops his idea of a generalized ‘other’. ‘Other’ and how one thinks one’s group perceives oneself is dependant upon human interaction. It is in realizing one’s role in relation to others that selfhood arises. Furthermore, the ‘I’ represents the self as a subject, whereas the ‘me’ identifies the self as object. Mead addresses the concept of self through his idea that the individual is a product of social interaction. One is first perceived as an object to others. Self is developed when one has an awareness that he himself is an object. This development of self is supported by human action, specifically communication. Language allows us to speak about ourselves in the same way we speak about others, thereby perceiving other and self as interacting objects.

In supporting Mead’s ideas, Blumer (1969) outlines three points related to the methodology of symbolic interactionism. First, people perceive an object depending on the meaning that they attribute to that object. Secondly, meaning is developed based on the process of social interaction. And finally, meanings can change over time. Human society is influenced by culture, derived from what people do rather than what people are. One’s status in society is defined by the way that people interact with others. Using the example of humanitarianism, the action of receiving help from humanitarians defines the recipients as dependent upon this assistance. The concept of culture also contributes to definitions of ‘otherness’.

Being an outsider in a culture speaks to Goffman’s (1959) assertion that society is not homogenous, and therefore we must modify behavior for various settings. Goffman uses the analogy of life as a theater, with the necessity for a parking lot and a cloakroom as well. In other words, the individual is responsible for the maintenance of the social world by playing his role, while at the same time considering the broader context behind simple face-to-face symbolic interactionism. “Putting on a show for the benefit of other people” (p.28) is related to a conception of what others perceive of oneself.

Mead, Blumer, and Goffman speak to the importance of self in relation to other. Rights-based humanitarianism addresses the division between the two. By encouraging interaction with individuals in the group, rather than viewing the group as its own entity defined by ‘other’, the individual rights and dignities of displaced populations are maintained. Meanings should shift away from viewing displaced populations as “vulnerable” and more towards a definition of survival in adverse circumstances.

References:
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. London, UK: Penguin Books.
Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Anne Fadiman's excellent examination of the clash of two cultures - one the Hmong refugees, and the other, Western medicine - not only proves the importance of holistic child development and a family-centered approach, but also draws attention to the struggle many families in forced displacement must face. The following passage, describing how families with young children coped during their flight, is horrifying, yet still (unfortunately) within the boundaries of comprehension in the context of armed conflict.

"Many people carried children on their backs. The babies presented a potentially fatal problem: they made noise. Silence was so essential that one Hmong woman, now living in Wisconsin, recalled that her son, who was a month old when the family left their home village, didn't know a single word when they arrived in Thailand two years later, because no one had talked that entire period except in occasional whispers. Nearly every Hmong family I met in Merced had a story to tell about a baby - a relative's child, a neighbor's child, a member of the group they escaped with - who had been drugged with opium. 'When the babies would cry,' a young mother named Yia Thao Xiong told me, 'we would mix the opium in the water in a cup and give it to them so they would be quiet and the soldiers would not hear, because if they heard the babies, they would kill all of us. Usually the baby just went to sleep. But if you give too much by mistake, the baby dies. That happened many, many times.' When I heard these stories, I recalled something I had once read about an Israeli child, hiding from Palestinian terrorists, who, when she began to cry, was accidentally smothered to death by her mother. That death, in 1979, was said to have driven the entire Israeli nation into mourning. The horror of the opium overdoses was not only that such things happened to the Hmong, but that they happened so frequently that, far from driving a nation into mourning, they never made headlines, never caught the world's ear, never reached beyond a community of families that numbly accepted them as a fact of life" (p. 162).