ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 discusses the driving forces behind Jordan’s initial refugee policies and changes over time. The chapter demonstrates that Jordan’s refugee governance is made up of different sets of regulative and evolving policies that have responded to internal and external challenges. The initial ad hoc and flexible responses of Jordan to Syrian mass flow can be attributed to the pre-existing socio-economic close relations, networks between Jordanian and Syrian communities particularly in the border areas, the idea about the temporality of crisis and Jordan’s long-term refugee hosting practices. Changes towards restrictive policies after mid-2013 can be explained by the critical juncture framework, in which the scale and the protraction of the Syrian refugee flow intersected with concerns about Jordan’s development trajectory and – real or perceived – threats about national identity and security. The chapter also focuses on Jordan’s relations with international humanitarian actors and donors on the basis of refugee programmes. This discussion displays the importance of international politics in refugee governance with a specific emphasis on political economy. Moreover, the Jordanian response demonstrates ways in which policy legacies about previously hosted refugee groups such as Palestinian and Iraqi, and security concerns about a spillover of Syrian war across borders together shape the policies and politics addressing refugees.
