Introduction : Jordan, conflicts and migrations : rethinking host policies and settlement strategies from a long-term and multiscale perspective

Résumé En

most studies of migration to Jordan have focused on one refugee case at a time, with special emphasis on the larger Palestinian and Syrian refugee groups and on encampment policies. By analyzing most of the refugee experiences together, this volume constitutes a novel contribution to the existing literature and may be considered an observatory for the analysis of different migrations over time. It aims at stressing the cumulative and processual dimensions of Jordan’s reception policies, as well as the refugees’ settlement strategies and experiences. More precisely, the present volume focuses on migrations caused by conflicts, wars and crises, underlining their articulation around long-standing human mobility. This approach must be understood in the post-2011 period, in the aftermath of popular contestations, revolts, and the armed conflicts that sometimes followed, which have caused major population movements and given rise to a new interest in the study of migration from the Middle East and Maghreb. Academic research literature has scrutinized the question of legal and illegal migratory routes and itineraries, as well as the policies elaborated by the states and their international partners (the European Union for example) (Snel et al. 2021) to better manage so-called migration “waves’” or “crises” (Akoka 2016). Taking Jordan as a case study, this volume highlights the fact that the Middle East is the principal region from where refugees come and where the majority of them settle (Babar 2020). It also shows that these exceptional migratory episodes sit within a genealogy of older social networks and human mobilities that connect the overall region under various host state-specific reception policies and settlement strategies (Chatty 2010; Canefe 2017).Geared to a multidisciplinary approach involving anthropology, architecture, geography, history, political science, and sociology,4 this volume shows the multiple ways in which migrations have shaped the social, political, economic, and humanitarian landscape of contemporary Jordan. In so doing, it also highlights the type of interactive relations that have developed between migrant populations and their host society at local and national levels, showcasing how policies elaborated by the government and humanitarian agencies have deeply affected the migrants’ daily lives and, conversely, how the latter’s adaptation strategies, involving ancient family, economic, and religious solidarity networks and the creation of new ones, have shaped their host urban and social environment. Finally, the volume highlights how a localized, multiscale, and long- term approach contributes to broader epistemological changes in the understanding of migratory phenomena in a context of regional crises.