ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the local implications of the national policy inaction and ambiguity analyzed in the previous chapter. Drawing on contextualized case-studies of so-called informal tented settlements in Lebanon’s Central Bekaa district, it demonstrates how informality, liminality, and exceptionalism are reproduced by local authorities in their securitized and politicized attempts to govern refugees. In terms of representation, municipalities and security agencies undermine consultative institutions among refugee communities and instead impose and co-opt more repressive strongmen. With regard to refugee status, they develop panoptic registration practices and arbitrary permission logics. Regarding refugees’ shelter, the imposition of curfews, raids, and evictions has become habitual. These practices are all informal. They are routinely denied or condemned by national authorities who nevertheless condone and support them in private. Such dynamics further entrench the ambiguity and uncertainty that refugees face and thereby enhance the marginalization that allows for their submission, exploitation, and expulsion.
