Frost, Lillian C.; Shteiwi, Musa M. --- "Syrian refugees and citizenship" [2018] ELECD 425; in Butenschøn, A. Nils; Meijer, Roel (eds), "The Middle East in Transition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 292

Book Title: The Middle East in Transition

Editor(s): Butenschøn, A. Nils; Meijer, Roel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788111126

Section: Chapter 13

Section Title: Syrian refugees and citizenship

Author(s): Frost, Lillian C.; Shteiwi, Musa M.

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

This chapter applies the lens of citizenship and non-citizenship to host state decisions about how to treat refugees, both legally and in practice, by examining Jordan’s and Lebanon’s policies toward Syrian refugees from 2012 to 2016. This lens situates refugee policies within the larger context of state-society relations and highlights the specific types of rights refugees can access. The chapter starts by defining citizenship and non-citizenship as well as the content of these relationships. The next section analyses Jordan’s and Lebanon’s citizenship regimes since independence and assesses these states’ non-citizenship regimes toward Syrian refugees, excluding Palestine refugees from Syria. The following section digs into the content of Syrian non-citizenship in these countries by looking at their formal and informal civil, political, social, and economic rights. The chapter concludes by highlighting the similarities in how states treat citizen and non-citizen groups as well as the utility of engaging non-citizenship as a concept.