Beyond rights-based social protection for refugees

The use of social protection measures has garnered increasing attention in recent years from academics and policymakers aspiring to unite the humanitarian origins and development ambitions of displacement governance regimes. Much of this attention has been focused on establishing and strengthening national systems of social protection provision. Analysis of policy approaches to social protection has become increasingly detailed, but typically does not extend beyond formal rights-based provision. This article seeks to address the paucity of literature on how refugees strategise around access to social assistance beyond Northern-mandated approaches. We review existing research on Syrian displacement in Lebanon to interrogate assumptions that refugees automatically seek institutionalised assistance. Drawing on postcolonial literature, we explore why modalities of social and humanitarian assistance offered through a rights-based approach represent only a partial mapping of the social protection that refugees avail themselves of. In doing so, we signal a move beyond the narrow and restrictive binary of formal/informal and attempt to consider the range of social protection opportunities from the perspective of refugees. Though unequal, we argue that both national systems of social protection provision and alternative approaches identified by displaced people are currently necessary, although a language of rights is only applicable to the former. Ultimately, greater coordination between the two is required. In conclusion, this article describes directions for future research aimed at a holistic understanding of how social protection is accessed in displacement and a more explicit interrogation of the impact of social protection measures in displacement settings.

[1]  Mona Harb,et al.  Unplanned links, unanticipated outcomes: Urban refugees in Halba (Lebanon) , 2022, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

[2]  L. Charles Refugees but not Refugees: The UAE’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis Viewed through the Lived Experience of Syrians in Abu Dhabi , 2021, Journal of Refugee Studies.

[3]  Ann-Christin Zuntz Refugees’ Transnational Livelihoods and Remittances: Syrian Mobilities in the Middle East Before and After 2011 , 2021, Journal of Refugee Studies.

[4]  J. Jongerden,et al.  ‘Everyone is a Possibility’: Messy Networks of Refugees from Syria in Urfa, Turkey , 2021 .

[5]  OUP accepted manuscript , 2021, Migration Studies.

[6]  J. Ferguson Give a Man a Fish , 2020 .

[7]  Tamirace Fakhoury Refugee return and fragmented governance in the host state: displaced Syrians in the face of Lebanon’s divided politics , 2020, Third World Quarterly.

[8]  W. Brown States of Injury , 2020 .

[9]  G. Cole Pluralising geographies of refuge , 2020 .

[10]  E. Carpi Towards a Neo-cosmetic Humanitarianism: Refugee Self-reliance as a Social-cohesion Regime in Lebanon’s Halba , 2020 .

[11]  A. López-Sala,et al.  Solidarity under siege: The crimmigration of activism(s) and protest against border control in Spain , 2019, European Journal of Criminology.

[12]  N. Stel,et al.  Lebanon's response to the Syrian refugee crisis – Institutional ambiguity as a governance strategy , 2019, Political Geography.

[13]  M. Trapp “Never had the hand”: Distribution and inequality in the diverse economy of a refugee camp , 2018 .

[14]  Sumi Madhok On Vernacular Rights Cultures and the Political Imaginaries of Haq , 2018 .

[15]  D. Chatty The Syrian Humanitarian Disaster: Understanding Perceptions and Aspirations in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey , 2017 .

[16]  Zhuang Fengqing,et al.  Patients’ Responsibilities in Medical Ethics , 2016 .

[17]  S. Turner Staying out of Place: The Being and Becoming of Burundian Refugees in the Camp and the City , 2016 .

[18]  Theodoros Rakopoulos Solidarity: the egalitarian tensions of a bridge‐concept , 2016 .

[19]  Tahir Zaman Islamic Traditions of Refuge in the Crises of Iraq and Syria , 2015 .

[20]  M. Abdelali-Martini,et al.  HOW DO MIGRATION REMITTANCES AFFECT RURAL LIVELIHOODS IN DRYLANDS , 2014 .

[21]  K. Göbel Remittances, expenditure patterns, and gender: parametric and semiparametric evidence from Ecuador , 2013 .

[22]  C. Horst,et al.  How does Conflict in Migrants’ Country of Origin Affect Remittance-Sending? Financial Priorities and Transnational Obligations among Somalis and Pakistanis in Norway , 2012 .

[23]  A. Rabo ‘We are Christians and we are equal citizens’: perspectives on particularity and pluralism in contemporary Syria , 2012 .

[24]  J. Ager,et al.  Faith and the Discourse of Secular Humanitarianism , 2011 .

[25]  E. Ferris Faith and Humanitarianism: It’s Complicated , 2011 .

[26]  Abdoumaliq Simone,et al.  The surfacing of urban life , 2011 .

[27]  J. Wiles,et al.  Landscapes of care , 2010 .

[28]  Laura Thaut,et al.  The Role of Faith in Christian Faith-Based Humanitarian Agencies: Constructing the Taxonomy , 2009 .

[29]  Anna Lindley The Early-Morning Phonecall: Remittances from a Refugee Diaspora Perspective , 2009 .

[30]  M. Abdel-Samad,et al.  Hezbollah's Social Jihad: Nonprofits as Resistance Organizations , 2009 .

[31]  N. V. Hear The Rise of Refugee Diasporas , 2009 .

[32]  Phyllis J. Johnson,et al.  Remittance Patterns of Southern Sudanese Refugee Men: Enacting the Global Breadwinner Role* , 2008 .

[33]  B. Whitaker Funding the International Refugee Regime: Implications for Protection , 2008 .

[34]  Pilar Riaño-Alcalá Journeys and landscapes of forced migration: Memorializing fear among refugees and internally displaced Colombians , 2008 .

[35]  Victoria Lawson,et al.  Geographies of Care and Responsibility , 2007 .

[36]  J. Popke Geography and Ethics: Everyday Mediations Through Care and Consumption , 2006 .

[37]  Susan Pozo,et al.  Remittance Receipt and Business Ownership in the Dominican Republic , 2006 .

[38]  B. Harrell-bond,et al.  Rights in exile : Janus-faced humanitarianism , 2005 .

[39]  Michael Ignatieff Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry , 2001 .