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@PHDTHESIS{Shalan:772906,
author = {Shalan, Muna},
othercontributors = {Pfaffenbach, Carmella Diana and Ley, Astrid},
title = {{P}lanning a sustainable settlement solution for {S}yrian
refugees in {J}ordan},
school = {RWTH Aachen University},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Aachen},
reportid = {RWTH-2019-10826},
pages = {1 Online-Ressource (x, iii, 198 Seiten) : Illustrationen,
Diagramme, Karten},
year = {2019},
note = {Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen
University 2020; Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2019},
abstract = {Since the onset of the war in Syria in 2011, Jordan has
been hosting refugees who fled violence in their home
country. Jordan as a country of scarce natural resources and
a struggling economy had to address further challenges that
resulted from the refugee presence. Given that the refugee
presence has evolved into a protracted situation, an
increasing pressure is facing the economy, public
infrastructure and social services in refugee-populated
regions of Jordan. Against this reality, a strategic shift
from mere humanitarian response to phased development
rhetoric has been witnessed in the country’s response
approach towards the crisis, resulting in the Jordan Compact
agreement between the government of Jordan and the
international community. International experience in the
field of refugee response has indeed proven that central
actors engaged in devising response mechanisms have to
recognize that displacement is to be treated as a
fully-fledged development challenge in order to adequately
address the refugees’ needs in their host country. For
example, central actors should devise response mechanisms to
facilitate refugees’ access to the formal labor market,
public services, and adequate housing. Nevertheless,
response planning that is based on a development schemes
usually gets entangled with economic and urban challenges
that existed prior to the refugee crisis in the host
country. In Jordan, the faltering implementation of
development-based response interventions has revealed the
need to resolve pre-existing challenges that permeate the
economy, labor market and municipal public services. On that
premise, this dissertation investigated the complex
conditions of devising and implementing response
interventions that aimed at enhancing Syrian refugee
livelihoods while supporting the development interests of
Jordan. The main research question answered in the
dissertation is “How can a sustainable settlement solution
for Syrian refugees in Jordan be achieved in light of the
development-based response approach?” From a
methodological standpoint, the research derived primary data
from semi-structured interviews conducted with key
informants representing Jordanian national and municipal
authorities, aid and development organizations as well as
representatives of the private sector and research
institutions. In addition, semi-structured interviews
conducted with Syrian refugee and Jordanian households aimed
at exploring their perspectives on the housing and built
environment conditions of their settlement settings.
Similarly, conducting semi-structured interviews with
refugees who benefitted from employment opportunities
created by economic response programs has revealed critical
insights on the impact of employment on refugees’
livelihoods and the related challenges that they face. The
empirical analysis of the dissertation begins by exploring
the housing and built environment conditions within the
various refugee settlement settings (urban, rural, and camp
settings). The analysis revealed that housing adequacy is
key to planning a sustainable settlement solution. Competent
authorities should therefore recognize its provision as a
political objective. With respect to the built environment,
access to employment and infrastructural services is more
attainable in urban and rural areas than in camps.
Meanwhile, the isolation of the refugee camps from their
surroundings limited the access of camps’ inhabitants to
employment opportunities. Efforts to enhance housing
adequacy provision in refugee-populated regions should
address the root causes of the current urban distress while
envisioning the end value of infrastructural investments in
camps in the long-term. The dissertation then progresses
into an investigation of the devised economic response
mechanisms that aimed at job creation for refugees while
tackling structural deficiencies of macrosectors of the
economy. This investigation revealed that response measures
that aim at reforming national and local economic policies
have run up against complex dynamics of development politics
and weak economic conditions. As such, the implementation of
economic response programs has had a mixed-record and the
outcomes have varied. On the one hand, advancements have
been achieved with respect to facilitating the access of
Syrian refugees to the formal labor market. On the other
hand, tackling the root causes of the economic challenges in
Jordan lagged behind thus impeding the overall progress of
the employment response programs. To avoid being abstracted
from reality, central actors should delve into the complex
dynamics of the economy in displacement-impacted regions and
recognize the labor market conditions. For this purpose, a
wide spectrum of response programs and policies are needed.
Although small-scale response programs are more cost- and
time-efficient, large-scale interventions that aim at
structural reform are essential for an impactful job
creation in the medium-term. Furthermore, efforts to
strengthen inclusive policy-making that incorporates voices
of non-state/civil society stakeholders and the private
sector play a pivotal role in yielding a rationally evolved
response policy. The dissertation also incorporates an
analysis of the response interventions that aimed at
resolving urban challenges within refugee-populated regions.
The analysis focused on the outcomes of the response
interventions in terms of enhancing the quality and coverage
of the basic infrastructural services as well as addressing
the housing needs of the displacement-impacted communities.
Delving into the process of planning and implementing the
response interventions revealed that it is inherently
political. Although the highly-centralized planning system
enabled reaching an agreement between Jordan and the
international community at a short notice (the Jordan
Compact), it turned out to be an impediment to the
implementation of some response programs (such as in the
case of the Jordan Affordable Housing program). The analysis
also revealed that several underdeveloped municipalities
have adopted a relatively pragmatic approach towards the
implementation of the development-based response
interventions. Empowering municipalities to take the lead in
terms of local development planning is indeed a vital step
towards operationalizing goals for sustainable urban
development at the municipal level. In the final part of the
empirical analysis, the dissertation explored the
perspectives of refugees concerning their employment
experiences and their pursuit of self-reliance. An important
take away from this analysis is the crucial need to develop
context-based solutions, in which central actors do not lose
sight of the people-based factors such as refugees’ age,
gender, and domestic responsibilities when devising the
employment programs. The analysis also revealed that the
spatial mismatch is a significant obstacle to the success of
refugee employment programs. With an overarching goal of
contributing to planning a sustainable settlement solution
for Syrian refugees in Jordan, this dissertation ends with a
discussion of the research conclusions for optimizing the
response practice and its operational approach. The research
conclusions target donors, policymakers, researchers and
practitioners concerned with devising and implementing
response mechanisms in Jordan and other displacement
contexts.},
cin = {551820 / 530000},
ddc = {550},
cid = {$I:(DE-82)551820_20140620$ / $I:(DE-82)530000_20140620$},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
doi = {10.18154/RWTH-2019-10826},
url = {https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/772906},
}
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