Table Of ContentAlexander Betts and
Paul Collier
REFUGE
Transforming a Broken Refugee System
Contents
List of Illustrations
Map: Distribution of Syrian Refugees
Graphs: Distribution of Asylum-Seekers in the EU
How We Came to Write This Book
Introduction
PART I: WHY IS THERE A CRISIS?
1 Global Disorder
2 The Time-Warp
3 The Panic
PART II: THE RETHINK
4 Rethinking Ethics: The Duty of Rescue
5 Rethinking Havens: Reaching Everyone
6 Rethinking Assistance: Restoring Autonomy
7 Rethinking Post-Conflict: Incubating Recovery
8 Rethinking Governance: Institutions That Work
PART III: HISTORY, THE REMAKE
9 Back to the Future
Illustrations
References
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List of Illustrations
1. Graph: where refugees from top five countries of origin found asylum.
2. Women walk between buildings damaged by the civil war in Homs, Syria.
(Copyright © Louai Beshara/Getty Images)
3. The newly built Azraq refugee camp, northern Jordan. (Copyright ©
Khalil Mazraawi/Getty Images)
4. Syrian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon. (Copyright © Ivor Prickett/UNHCR)
5. Satellite imagery of Hagadera, one of the Dadaab refugee camps in
Kenya. (Copyright © DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d/Getty Images)
6. Congolese women in the Nyarugusu refugee camp, Tanzania. (Copyright
© A. Betts)
7. Juru market in Nakivale settlement, Uganda. (Copyright © A. Betts)
8. The Shams-Élysées market street in the Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan.
(Copyright © L. Bloom)
9. A makeshift bird shop in the Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan. (Copyright ©
L. Bloom)
10. A community radio station run by a Congolese refugee in Nakivale
settlement, Uganda. (Copyright © R. Nuri)
11. Refugees making biodegradable sanitary pads at a refugee camp in
Uganda. (Copyright © L. Bloom)
12. Refugee and local tailors work alongside one another in Kampala,
Uganda. (Copyright © N. Omata)
13. A factory in the King Hussein bin Talal Development Area (KHBTDA) in
Jordan.
14. Syrian men attempt to reach Europe by boat via the Aegean Sea.
(Copyright © Achilleas Zavallis/UNHCR)
15. A woman and child wait at a border-crossing in Slovenia. (Copyright ©
Maja Hitij/DPA/PA Images)
Source: UNHCR
Source: Eurostat
How We Came to Write This Book
The collaboration behind this book dates back to an invitation. By early 2015
Jordan was confronting the day-to-day reality of a broken global refugee
system. Familiar with our work, a Jordanian think tank, WANA, asked us to
come and brainstorm with the government. Neither of us was a Middle East
expert: our main geographical interest is in Africa. We were also both
outsiders to the narrow range of academic disciplines that have dominated the
study of refugees: we are neither lawyers nor anthropologists. Paul is an
economist and Alex is a political scientist, though we have each regularly
trespassed across the boundary between the two fields. Although Paul had long
worked on development and conflict, he had not applied it to the context of
refugees. Conscious of ‘do no harm’, he routinely turned down requests to
stray into unfamiliar territory and would have done so with this one. But to
Alex the subject of refugees was not unfamiliar territory: it was his life’s
work. By 2015 he was directing the world’s largest centre for refugee studies,
at Oxford University. We became a team.
Arriving in Jordan that April, we found that with WANA we had landed on
our feet. Its Director, Erica Harper, had all the knowledge of context that we
lacked: and more, for her husband was the Director of UNHCR in Jordan.
Andrew’s impressive combination of vigour and intelligence was required:
facing mounting needs and diminishing resources, his job was becoming
impossible. Through Erica and Andrew we had ready access to the knowledge
and networks we needed to remedy our own areas of ignorance.
We pitched an initially exploratory idea. The government of Jordan imposed
the typical restrictions on refugees: they were not allowed to work. Jordan was
also typical of many middle-income countries: not sufficiently poor to qualify
for aid, but struggling to break beyond its current income level. We wondered
whether the influx of refugees could be reconceived from being a burden to an
opportunity for a new engagement with the international community. We floated
the idea with NGOs, international organizations, and the government – all of
whom were greatly frustrated by the dwindling levels of international support
for refugees.
We visited Za’atari refugee camp, which reeked of lives on hold: a theme
that will haunt this book. But in the course of our visit, serendipity lent a hand.
With time to kill, our Jordanian official host suggested that we might care to
see something entirely different of which the government was proud: just a
brief detour. A mere fifteen minutes away, there it was: a different world. The
King Hussain bin Talal Development Area (KHBTDA) had had £100m spent
on it: a huge, well-equipped economic zone intended to attract business to this
part of the country. The war across the border had intervened and it was only
10 per cent occupied: Jordanians didn’t want to work there.
So, for four years, up to 83,000 refugees had sat in enforced idleness while
fifteen minutes away a huge zone was empty for lack of workers. The
combined intellectual resources of two Oxford professors managed to add two
and two: with some appropriate international support, everyone could be
better off. We soon realized that the idea could be extended around the country:
there were zones and refugees all over the place. And was Jordan unique?
Perhaps the same approach could work elsewhere. Of course, it was not a
panacea: any conceivable initiative is going to face many practical
impediments. But it was worth piloting in a few places. The Jordanian
government was interested: it was time to move from an idea to a practical
policy.
The typical lag between an academic idea and practical implementation is
either years or eternity. But by the summer of 2015 the refugee situation was
escalating into crisis: we needed a shortcut. We decided to write pieces that
would be published quickly and read widely. By August we had the cover
story of The Spectator, and by November a flagship piece in Foreign Affairs.
They got noticed and, faute de mieux, their ideas were taken up. By January
2016 they were being pitched to the world’s business leaders at Davos. By
February, they were adopted officially at a conference in London jointly
convened by the King of Jordan, David Cameron and the President of the
World Bank. The so-called Jordan Compact launched a pilot project to create
200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees alongside Jordanian nationals, including in
some of the economic zones. The success of that pilot now depends on the
politicians.
But we wanted to broaden the scope of our reflection beyond Jordan.
Behind the Jordan-related brainstorming lay a set of ideas for how to rethink a
failing refugee system. Our approach is not simply to roll out the Jordanian
pilot: all contexts are different. But there are broader ideas to carry forward:
