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They often recounted stories of violence in Syria, and then would say they were grateful to be safe while their friends and family endure airstrikes and sniper fire across the border back in Syria. Syrian parents tell kids to stay out of the streets, but without public parks, the roads are soccer fields. For Western migrants their biggest risk comes not from terrorism, but from being in a car accident. I Agyead was stopped by a patrol on University Street in Irbid and taken to the security center for 12 hours. This was because I had not yet been issued the security identification card carried by Syrian refugees, was using my passport as an identification document, and was not registered as a refugee.
However, even after this, I have never felt for a moment that I was a stranger in Irbid and Jerash, and see this incident as an exception, not a normal event. While getting a pair of sunglasses repaired at a Syrian shop near University Street, a Jordanian friend and I Charles noticed two Syrian toddlers attempting to cross a busy highway.
My friend pulled them up to the sidewalk as cars whizzed past and asked them where their family was.
Cochrane, P. It is important to note, that while the institutional structure of the water sector seems to be well-defined, the dynamics of the politics of water in Jordan are complex: There are multiple formal and informal, as well as regional, national, and international level institutions that play a role in the implementation of water policy. McKelvey, K. Land institutions, including those that oversee the land market and planning have been described as insufficient to accommodate the current and rapid urban transformation. In districts in Amman, for example, prices of rented accommodation have increased by — percent versus pre-crisis levels. This is to be achieved through studies, planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation projects; land reclamation; and overseeing public and private wells.
Suddenly we were approached by a man in a button-down shirt and jeans who asked what was going on. My friend explained the situation, and the man replied that he was a police officer. After exchanging tribal names to verify identity, we went with the plainclothes officer to take the two little girls back to their home, since they had calmed them down enough to guide us, turn by turn, to their apartment.
The police officer rapped loudly on the apartment door. Having made his point, the officer left, with us in tow. My friend and the officer slapped hands in the alleyway, proud of their good deed, and we went our separate ways. From his viewpoint, this was just another incident of Jordanian hospitality, and Syrian appreciation for the security Jordanians had endowed them. This industry provides well-paying jobs to both Syrians and Jordanians; however, insiders describe a massive pharmaceutical black market for drugs while companies rake in profits from contracts with international humanitarian organizations that are often unfulfilled.
Before , Irbid had only two hospitals one in purple, location data for second unavailable. Since then, the number of hospitals and clinics has expanded red , including in the low- and middle-income neighborhoods now housing many Syrian refugees, including the Al Atiba, Al Abrar, Al Nozha, and Al Worod neighborhoods. The issue with medical services in Irbid today is not proximity but high costs, long waits, and inability to perform advanced procedures. Ninety-six percent of refugees in Jordan report seeking healthcare when they need it regardless of their registration status.
Psychosocial care is accessible to less than half of urban Syrian refugees who need it. Meanwhile, limited access to preventive healthcare is of concern. Fewer than one in four non-camp refugee children in Jordan are immunized. And while smoking is pervasive, exercise is not. Today, playing the FIFA video game is far more popular than kicking a ball around.
Both Jordanian and Syrian diets are heavy with breads, meat, and sugary drinks—heavily sweetened tea and soda—which are showcased prominently on the table at every meal. Diabetes rates across the Middle East are racing up, [87] and obesity problems are sure to follow. See Al Gahd, Jordanians widely blame Syrian refugees for increased traffic congestion, [88] but this issue seems more to do with an increase in population density, a lack of central planning for the road network, and a rapid increase in Jordanian car ownership rates since the s.
The lack of parking lots means people park in the streets, further constricting traffic flow. Some entrepreneurs use abandoned lots and act as informal valets, but this hardly presents a sustainable solution. There is no rail system in Irbid, and the closest thing to public transit is the microbuses that crisscross the city. Refugees we spoke with say the lack of affordable transportation to workplaces and medical facilities are a major barrier to holding down a job or accessing medical care.
Some Syrians own cars that they drove across the border from Syria, but most cannot afford to maintain them.
When the cars break down, they are abandoned. Almost all Syrian refugees in Irbid we talked to spoke dismissively of UNHCR, saying they have only interacted with them once or twice over the five-plus years they have lived in Jordan and have received little help from them. When asked to clarify if they meant UNHCR, they brushed off the question dismissively as if it did not matter. Therefore, the lack of satisfaction might be due to lack of understanding about service providers rather than poor service quality.
For refugees, the main motivation for going through the effort of registering with UNHCR is the slim but life-changing possibility of winning the resettlement lottery. Syrian refugees in Jordan must decide whether they should work or rely on cash assistance. UNHCR relies on a complex econometric vulnerability assessment model and data collected from household and individual surveys to determine who gets cash assistance and in what amount. There are regular complaints from Syrians that the amounts in no way correlate with their needs. Of the dozens of refugees we spoke with about cash assistance, nearly half complained of having their cash assistance reduced or terminated without explanation.
Most of the Syrians we spoke with said they believed that amounts of cash assistance were set arbitrarily, and that taking a job would result in loss of aid. Thus, they have little incentive to find or report employment and are incentivized to over-report family size, injuries, and sickness in the family. Although there are not yet any studies of inflation in Irbid and the fiscal impact of cash assistance, there is anecdotal evidence indicating that housing rents have increased discussed in Housing, above.
On average, resettlement takes over a decade between registration and actual resettlement. See National Immigration Forum, In the first years after their arrival in and , most Syrians in Irbid survived off of savings, often from possessions they sold in Syria or from money wired to them from family or friends in other countries in the Arab Gulf or the West. The expanding humanitarian sector became another source of income.
In and , Syrian wages averaged JD per month USD , [] and most Syrians lacked a work permit, making them vulnerable to exploitation by their employers. Few international organizations tried to protect Syrian workers in the early years of the crisis because socioeconomic vulnerability was not a concern.
However, over time, Jordanians and EU donors began focusing on economic de facto integration.
In return, Jordan pledged to integrate , Syrian refugees into the local labor market. As a result, from to March , between 42, and , permits were issued to Syrians, [] including at least 5, to women. Therefore, there is high turnover, and these jobs remain in the hands of South and Southeast Asian migrant workers. Without a permit, Syrian workers are subject to delays in payment of wages and exclusion from social security.
Employers threaten Syrian workers with deportation if they try to leave their jobs or voice complaints about their work conditions. While there are many irregular work opportunities in Irbid, they come with risks. Parents voiced fears that their children would get caught working irregularly and be deported or forcibly moved to Azraq camp. Generally, this fear is shared differently among genders. Young men talk about this dilemma as though facing it is their male responsibility, rationalizing the risk as their share of the war burden.
One was deported back to Syria. He was selling roses. Meanwhile, women tend to take less-visible jobs inside homes like running informal day cares, cleaning, or working part time as seamstresses, making them less at risk of being identified and punished for working without a permit. Some Syrians are still underpaid because they are under the legal age, making them a vulnerable group in the labor market.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is a small group of Syrians who receive high wages of up to JD USD per month, mostly those working in specialized fields such as select artisans and restaurant chefs. Kelberer, a; Kelberer, b. At times, employers will deduct a sum from the monthly salary of workers, saying this amount is for social security. Instead of paying the fees to the relevant government institution, these employers keep the money themselves. For public data, see Jordanian Ministry of Labor, In a national survey, Jordanians rated the economic impact of Syrian refugees as their most pressing concern, above environmental, social, psychological, political, and security concerns.
Several Jordanians and Syrians we spoke with said their anxieties are exacerbated by the widespread belief that Syrian workers are highly skilled, especially in areas such as construction, handicrafts, and food production, and therefore tough competition for jobs. Before the Syrian conflict broke out in , Jordan and Syria had no work permit requirements and open-border trade policies.
This was the result of decades of economic cooperation that began in the s, meaning northern Jordan and southern Syria were in many ways economically integrated before the sealing of the border Ryan, ; Brand, The majority of Jordanians have benefitted only marginally, and there is widespread under- and unemployment see data from The World Bank, These anxieties result in discrimination against Syrians during hiring and in the workplace.
I Agyead think I felt like I was an exception and accepted in large part because I was a university student and did not participate in the labor market, so I did not face the common workplace discrimination other Syrians encounter. Moreover, when I began to work, I was mostly working with Syrian media organizations and INGOs, and as such, I only really began to face hate speech and racism during the last year of my stay in Amman when I lost my previous jobs and started looking for work in Jordanian institutions.
At this point, I directly experienced workplace exploitation for the first time. Those Jordanians we spoke to with knowledge of the issue viewed the Jordan Compact with contempt: they saw the deal as an attempt by Europeans to keep Syrians out of their backyards even though there are not work opportunities in poor countries of first asylum like Jordan. The economic evidence suggests Syrians are competing only with low-skilled Jordanian workers because Jordanian labor law prohibits Syrians from working in skilled job sectors.
Today, the Syrian workforce comprises , out of 1,, non-Jordanian workers in the country. Almost all of the sweets shops in Irbid are now Syrian owned. For example, Bikdash is a famous Syrian ice cream shop from Damascus. The shop has a clean seating area and a massive floor space for drying pistachios that are the toppings for thick vanilla ice cream on a layer of honey.
It is thriving and has expanded to seven locations in Amman, one in Zarqa, and now one in Irbid. Bikdash and others succeeded for three reasons: Syrians brought skills with them, sweet shops have low startup and production costs, and Syrians have a well-established reputation for making exceptional food products.
These features have allowed Bikdash to survive the competition of imported ice cream like Jabri, a subsidiary of Al-Naseem Food Industries, based in Misurata, Libya, which employs international staff and domestic competition such as the Jordanian-made Eisberg ice cream a subsidiary of an Amman-based company, Sujab Industrial, that employs some workers. In contrast, income-generating initiatives by large INGOs do consider government restrictions on the sectors where Syrians can legally work, but do not consider consumer preferences or existing skills, and put Syrians to work sectors such as textiles, where there is neither demand for Syrian-made textiles nor pre-existing skills among Syrian refugees.
Minimum wage in Jordan converts to a reasonable income in pounds on arrival in Cairo. Most Egyptians do not have work permits, but the Jordanian government has been blocked by Egyptian political pressure from carrying out deportations of Egyptian workers. Syrians fill a wide range of jobs: as baristas in cafes, attendees for narghile water pipes , salespeople in the electronics shops, sweets makers, construction workers, food vendors, flower sellers, gas station attendants, cleaners, shoe shiners, and security guards. Syrian street kids sometimes sell cigarettes, pantyhose, and other goods, or hawk vegetables and fruit from carts.
Meanwhile, Syrian women run businesses from their homes, including cooking, handicrafts, and sewing.
One woman converted a room in her apartment into a salon where she prepares brides for their weddings. We did not hear of any Jordanians who used these home-based services. Businesses in Irbid on paper are owned by Jordanians, but in many cases, management and operations are in fact handled by Syrians. Some business names reference Sham Syria in their names in an act of nostalgia. Others have subtle political references including the word hareea freedom in the shop name, letting patrons know the shop is owned by a member of the Syrian opposition.
Most international development in Jordan has taken place in Amman from investors in the Gulf and the EU, which has resulted in cost-of-living spikes across the city, especially in West Amman.