In this post Hanna Schneider and her colleague Israa Sadder share an email exchange in which they discuss conducting research with Syrian refugees living in Jordan. The exchange describes the relationships developed both between researchers and intermediaries, and between researchers, intermediaries and their interlocutors. These research relationships raise multiple questions regarding how working as an... Continue Reading →
National and Local Responses to Support Syrian Refugees in Turkey in the times of COVID-19
It is vital that responses to the COVID-19 pandemic support rather than undermine the rights and needs of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and IDPs. In this piece, the second in a two-part series examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Syrian refugees living in Turkey, Selma Akay Erturk traces the ways that different institutions... Continue Reading →
Exploring refugees’ conceptualisations of Southern-led humanitarianism
How do refugees themselves experience and conceptualise Southern-led responses developed ‘on their behalf’? Building on her research in Lebanon, Cuba and Algeria vis-a-vis Palestinian and Sahrawi refugees’ participation in a Cuban scholarship programme established in the 1960s, this question has long been at the core of Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s work, and continues to be central... Continue Reading →
Municipal-level responses to Syrian refugees in Turkey: The case of Bursa
Turkey hosts the highest number of people forcibly displaced from Syria and local municipalities can struggle to meet their basic needs, leaving much-needed integration programs de-prioritised. A lack of data concerning the numbers of refugees in specific areas, and a lack of additional funding or local staff, are clear barriers to implementation, even where policies... Continue Reading →
‘The Al Shami Kitchen Project’ – Solidarity amongst Syrian Refugee Women in Izmit, Turkey
The Al Shami Kitchen Project is a refugee-led initiative that directly challenges assumptions that refugees are passive victims in need of care from outsiders. In this piece, Fatmanur Delioglu’s research, based in Izmit, Turkey, focuses on the solidarity networks developed amongst Syrian refugee women, and between them and members of the local Turkish community. In... Continue Reading →