Refugee Camps In Jordan Research Articles

Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Among Women Visiting Health Care Centers in Palestine Refugee Camps in Jordan

This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among a sample of women visiting health care centers in Palestine refugee camps in Jordan. We found that different types of IPV, including physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and control behaviors by the partners were experienced by the participants. This study was among a number of studies that investigated this phenomenon in residents of Palestinian camps. It adds to existing studies in this field, however, as it focuses on the prevalence of the top five types of IPV in these women. Cooccurrence of IPV, that is, experiencing two or more types of partner violence at the same time, was noticed in these women. Experiencing control by one's partner and the presence of different attitudes between men and women toward the use of violence were factors contributing to the occurrence of this phenomenon in these women. National efforts aiming at breaking the cycle of violence should be fostered through media and public awareness campaigns. Changing people's attitudes concerning men's use and women's acceptance of violence should be the aim of these efforts.

Education of the Home Economics for the Palestinian Refugees Survey of the text books used by the UNRWA school at the refugee camp in Jordan

Education of the Home Economics for the Palestinian Refugees Survey of the text books used by the UNRWA school at the refugee camp in Jordan

Impact of conflict in Syria on Syrian children at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan

This paper describes a study performed to investigate the impact of the conflict in Syria on Syrian refugee children. The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan was chosen for this task. Two control (comparison) groups of children were selected: one from the Jordanian Ramtha district, which is just across the border from Syria, and that indirectly feel the consequences of the Syrian conflict, and the other from Amman, the capital of Jordan, which is far away from the border. The study compared the Zaatari, Ramtha and Amman groups in terms of expressed anxiety and depression symptoms. They were also compared with respect to their gender and age. The Zaatari children were more distressed than the others, and the symptom ‘thoughts of ending your life’ was expressed only by this group. The Ramtha group also expressed some distress. The fact that this group indirectly experiences the consequences of violence emphasises the dire circumstances of children inside Syria who are trapped between fighting groups.

Disengagement from politics: Nationalism, political identity, and the everyday in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan

In al-Wihdat, a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, there is today a puzzling absence of political participation among camp dwellers. This absence is all the more striking for a number of reasons. First of all, because Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East are widely held to be bastions of political resistance and Palestinian nationalism. Secondly, because this lack of political participation coincides with the outbreak of unprecedented turmoil in the Arab world. Is refugees’ disengagement from politics a clear sign of their passive assimilation or, conversely, a form of political protest tout court? What forms does Palestinian nationalism take in a country that has granted full citizenship rights to the majority of refugees? More generally, how do claims of national belonging articulate with other, apparently conflicting, national identities? Taking as its starting point the reverberations of the “Arab Spring” in Jordan, this paper wants to shed light on the complexities associated with refugees’ socioeconomic and political integration in Jordan. More broadly, it aims to add to a scholarly debate that has recently urged anthropologists and social scientists to rethink the categories of “the political” and “political agency.” What will be argued here is that refugees’ eagerness to distance themselves from what they saw as the dangerous world of politics can also be explained with Carl Schmitt’s specific understanding of the political. According to the philosopher, the distinction between friend and enemy lies at the very core of “the political.” In Jordan, this distinction is played out in the seemingly contradiction of being both Palestinian refugees and Jordanian citizens. However, if politics requires taking a firm stand either as Palestinian refugees or Jordanian citizens that camp dwellers are unwilling to take, a descent into what refugee perceives as a nonpolitical ordinariness enables them to negotiate the complexities of their lives.

Maternal Monitoring, Adolescent Disclosure, and Adolescent Adjustment Among Palestinian Refugee Youth in Jordan

The role of parenting (adolescent‐perceived maternal solicitation of information and control), and child‐driven processes (adolescent disclosure and secrecy) in parental knowledge of adolescents' activities, norm‐breaking, and anxiety were examined among 498 poor Palestinian youth (M = 15 years) living in refugee camps in Jordan. With family relationships and demographic background controlled, greater adolescent disclosure and less secrecy about activities, but also more maternal control and solicitation, were associated with greater maternal knowledge. Greater dispositional secrecy was associated with greater norm‐breaking and generalized anxiety, but parental control and parental solicitation were not. In addition, both gender and maternal control moderated the effects of disclosure on norm‐breaking. Differences between these findings and research with Western samples are discussed.

Locating Young Refugees Historically: Attending to Age Position in Humanitarianism

Nowadays humanitarian organisations are often keen to engage young displaced people in programmatic efforts. In such efforts attention is commonly paid to the impact of the social dynamics of gender. However, similar consideration of processes associated with age has been less apparent. This article explains the importance of attending to the ‘age position’ of young refugees from two interrelated perspectives: first, as a means to comprehend the forces that inform the expression of particular needs and aspirations by young people, and second, in order to grasp the historicity of their lives and of the larger displaced population. The article then moves on to offer a conceptual framework for investigating age position. The notion of ‘generation’ is central to this framework. Four distinct meanings of generation are identified and their application explored through reference to findings from research conducted in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan.

Humanitarian Work Using EMDR in Palestine and the Arab World

Humanitarian outreach is a significant part of the practice of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. The development of training in Arabic and provision of EMDR in areas of ongoing conflict including Palestine, Libya, Syria, and Iraq is described, and brief accounts of clients and therapists illustrate the help that EMDR has brought to survivors of conflict, imprisonment, and torture. Three clients, each with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, are briefly presented here: one from a refugee camp in Palestine, one from a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, and the other from a war zone in Libya.

Housing conditions in Palestinian refugee camps, Jordan

This paper evaluates the quality of housing in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. 1,951,603 refugees live in Jordan, and one fifth live in thirteen refugee camps established following Arab–Israeli conflicts in 1948 and 1967. These camps are characterised by poor living conditions and associated health, social and environmental problems. However, there is scant empirical evidence regarding the quality of the housing in these camps. This paper addresses that gap by reporting on the findings of a questionnaire survey of 186 household units in Baqa’a, the largest of the camps. The quantitative survey was triangulated by a series of extensive fieldwork visits to the area. Findings reveal that the housing in the camp is generally substandard. Poor structure and maintenance are key problems and this paper identifies and discusses various challenges, political and practical, that stand in the way of housing improvements. The paper concludes by suggesting that new models of responsibility need to be forged between the stakeholders in order to break the current stalemate.

Community-based rehabilitation in Jordan: challenges to achieving occupational justice

Purpose: This paper presents theories of occupational and social justice and applies the theoretical tenets to a community-based rehabilitation (CBR) program in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. Method: The example of building a playground for children with disabilities, and other aspects of the social, political and cultural context in Jordan are described in relation to the theory and practice of CBR, occupational and social justice. Results: Key concepts are explained, analyzed and applied, namely occupational justice, social justice, occupational form and occupational deprivation (a strong determinant of occupational injustice), all of which were relevant in the refugee camp where children with disabilities were deprived of resources and chances to play. Conclusion: Grounding CBR in an occupational justice framework offers justification and inspiration for occupational therapy in similar settings deprived of resources and opportunities wherein both individuals and communities could benefit.Implications for RehabilitationOccupational deprivation, such as that seen in refugee camps, is associated with poor mental health and physical frailty.CBR in refugee camps can lead to both occupational justice and social justice for persons with disabilities.Disability laws and legislation must be implemented, not just stated on paper, in order to address the rights of persons with disabilities and social justice.

The Management of the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan between Logics of Integration and Exclusion

Although they are presently home to less than one-fifth of the total refugee population living in Jordan, namely 350,000 refugees), the refugee camps epitomize the dilemma pertaining to the refugees' dual Palestinian/Jordanian identity. Generally viewed as the most vivid markers of the refugees' commitment to the right of return, they are simultaneously portrayed either as hubs of potential political dissent or as places of social marginalization that affect the country's drive towards liberal modernization. This article explores this dilemma through the analysis of the camp management policies pursued by national and international stakeholders since the early 1950s. Following a first historical section that investigates the origins of the camps in Jordan and tackles their representations within the Jordanian society at large, the article goes on highlighting the political and socioeconomic stakes involved in the development of camps’ physical and housing infrastructure. In so doing, it sheds a new light on the “right of return”. A rallying slogan across the Palestinian society and the Arab world as a whole, the “right of return” has also constituted an operational norm that has deeply influenced the camps’ evolution patterns as well as Jordan’s urban landscape.

Palestinian Refugee Experience in a Changing Humanitarian Order

The length of both the Palestinian refugee condition and the international humanitarian response to this displacement and dispossession makes the Palestinian case distinctive, even exceptional in certain ways. At the same time, this very distinction makes it an extremely useful case through which to consider the transformations in global humanitarianism over the past 60 years. This paper will focus on this longevity and these transformations to consider the impact of living, long-term, in a changing humanitarian landscape on Palestinian community and identity. Given its size and presence across the multiple fields of Palestinian displacement UNRWA is clearly the primary actor in the assistance regime to Palestinians, but it has never been the only one. The paper, therefore, will consider multiple actors and agencies. The paper draws on both archival sources (including UNRWA records) and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. In looking at humanitarian practice particular attention will be given to rations provision, camp structure and infrastructure, and development projects. Each of these forms of assistance is part of a larger humanitarian apparatus. At the same time, each has a slightly different target in its provision of assistance. For rations delivery the first and primary goal is to ensure the physical survival of a population (the target is what is often referred to as “bare life”). Camp structures and infrastructure clearly have a survival aim in mind – as shelter is a basic human need – but this field of humanitarian materials also works on both familial and social life, as the spaces which people occupy (whether domestic or public) directly shape relations in both these realms. For development – whether large-scale works projects or, more recently popular, small-scale and microfinance projects – the idea of progress, not just continuity of life or community, but rather transformation of both, is a principal goal. Each of these forms of humanitarian intervention has been central to the assistance regime for Palestinian refugees over the past sixty years, and each has changed considerably over that time. Investigating Palestinian refugee response to changes in each of these areas illuminates the dynamic process through which humanitarian practice, materials, and discourse have helped shape Palestinian community.

Psychological partner violence and women's vulnerability to depression, stress, and anxiety

Psychological partner violence is a considerable problem, despite its invisible outcomes on victims' physical health. Focusing on mental health, the present study looked at differences in mental illness, such as depression, stress, and anxiety, among victims and non-victims of psychological violence. A convenience sample of women (n = 267) visiting health-care centres in refugee camps in Jordan provided data about their experiences of psychological violence and their mental health status. The results indicated that, compared to their non-victimized counterparts, women reporting psychological violence had significantly higher mean scores of depression (t = -4.92), stress (t = -3.73), and anxiety (t = -4.22), with P < 0.0001 for all results. It was suggested that factors that have significant roles in determining poor mental health status included victims' low self-esteem; poor socioeconomic profile, in terms of education level and income; and responsibilities associated with child and family requirements. The impacts of these factors on victims' mental health status are discussed.

The Humanitarian Condition: Palestinian Refugees and the Politics of Living

In 1948 approximately 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, going both to neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon and to the parts of Mandate Palestine that became the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Today, there are five million registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the agency charged with providing assistance to Palestinians across the Middle East. What it is to be a Palestinian refugee is shaped by a political geography of displacement, by dynamics within this dispersed community, and by humanitarian action. The Palestinian refugee community constitutes one of the largest and longest-lasting refugee populations in the world. The causes of both its creation and its longevity are subjects of tremendous political contention-and neither of these questions is my subject here. Rather, I explore the dynamics of longterm humanitarianism, looking particularly at the politics of living within a humanitarian space.I draw on research in the UNRWA archives in Amman, Jordan, and on ethnographic fieldwork I have been conducting in a refugee camp in Jordan, populated by a group of Palestinians with a particular history of double displacement. This research in the Jerash camp is part of a larger project for which I am working across the area of UNRWA operations - Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza - to explore the effects of more than sixty years of living in a humanitarian order on Palestinian community and political life. Part of what I seek to understand is what happens as humanitarianism moves from crisis response to a condition of life. Humanitarian practice clearly shifts from disaster relief - provision of food, clothing, emergency shelter - to efforts that look more like social service work and development projects. How are people and communities shaped by this transformation and by living, longterm, in a humanitarian condition? It should be noted that while the length of the Palestinian refugee experience is unusual, protracted refugees (people living for extended periods of time without being either resettled or returned home) constitute a large, and growing, segment of the global refugee population.1The anthropological literature on humanitarianism, to which I have contributed, and much of it in conversation with Giorgio Agamben's arguments about bare life, has highlighted the limits and ethical constraints of humanitarian action.2 This research has explored the ways humanitarianism can reduce the people it seeks to help to mere victims - objects of compassion, but restricted in their capacity to act as full subjects in their own right.3 It has illuminated the hierarchies that are built into a project made up of helpers and victims, one in which some can choose to make sacrifices to assist the helpless while other people are themselves sacrificed in other people's wars and conflicts.4 The anthropological exploration of the depoliticizing effects of humanitarianism intersects with policy-oriented debates about whether humanitarian agencies should take political positions in their work, or whether they should remain neutral, impartial, and nonpolitical in their missions.5 The focus on how humanitarianism constrains and disables has illuminated crucial dynamics of a field that is generally valorized as doing good, but these constraints are not all that needs to be understood about humanitarian effects. In looking at a long-term humanitarian condition, I examine what happens within such a humanitarian order. I ask: what forms of action are enabled by humanitarian materials and practices? What kinds of relationships are produced by humanitarian categories and procedures? What are the lifeworlds that take shape within the humanitarian space and through the humanitarian condition?The Politics of Living in the Humanitarian SpaceIn order to think about the politics of living within humanitarianism, it is necessary to say a bit more about what humanitarianism is. …

Fragile Intimacies: Marriage and Love in the Palestinian Camps of Jordan (1948––2001)

This article focuses on conjugal love as an articulated, lived emotion; on relationships between spouses within the context of the family; and on how these emotions and relations have changed over time in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Based on interviews with four generations of Palestinian camp women, the article charts evolving marital patterns and attitudes toward marriage in relation to changing political circumstances and diverse influences. Particular emphasis is given to the third generation and the emergence of individualization of choice and its consequences. The influence of the family and the role of protection in the formation of conjugal bonds are also addressed.

Dislocated Masculinity: Adolescence and the Palestinian Nation-in-exile

Taking as its starting-point emerging discussion about gender and nationalism this article considers the masculinities constructed by and for adolescent males born into a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. I consider the relationship of these masculinities to the construction of the camp as a moral and sociopolitical space. Through the employment of ethnographic material the article demonstrates the ways in which young males-through the performance of a particular dominant vision of masculinity termed mukhayyamji-serve to reproduce the camp as authentic location of an exilic national community. The article also examines the implications for individual young men of this interplay between masculine performance and the reproduction of the camp as a moral and socio-political space. It explores the consequences both for those who fail or choose not to uphold the idealized mukhayyamji adolescent masculinity and for those who evince the skills and qualities that this entails. It is argued that while the former risk marginalization from the camp as a moral and sociopolitical community the latter face marginalization from the economic life of wider Jordanian society and with that endanger the transition to social adulthood. Thus a set of paradoxes emerges for young males that reflects the ambiguous position of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan at a specific moment in the history of Jordan and the Palestinian national struggle. (authors)

Attitudes of Men and Women Towards Wife Beating: Findings From Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors associated with the acceptance of wife beating among currently married men and women living in disadvantaged Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. The study uses data from a cross-sectional survey of 3,100 households from 12 refugee camps, conducted in 1999, with a sub-sample of 395 married women and men selected for this analysis. Associations between acceptance of wife beating and experience of abuse as well as other risk factors are assessed for men and women separately, using χ2 tests and odds ratios from binary logistic regression models. The majority of men (60.1%) and women (61.8%) believe that wife beating is justified in at least one of the eight hypothetical marital situations presented to them. Among women, those that had been victims of intimate partner violence are significantly more likely to report acceptance of wife beating. Among men, acceptance of wife beating is also significantly associated with their current age, labor force participation, their view on women’s autonomy, and their own history as perpetrators of IPV. The majority of respondents justify wife beating in this context, with essentially no difference between men and women. Acceptance of wife beating by both men and women was strongly associated with previous experiences of wife beating adjusting for other risk factors.

Civic engagement, gender and selfrated health in poor communities: Evidence from Jordan’s refugee camps

This paper examines the association between civic engagement and self-rated health among a sample of adults living in refugee camps in Jordan. The analysis is based on a cross-sectional sample survey of all households residing in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and interviewed in the spring and summer of 1999. The outcome variable is self-rated health. Associations between civic engagement and self-rated health are assessed using χ2 tests and logistic regression models. Findings from a logistic regression model show that civic engagement, as measured primarily by membership in clubs and other civic groups, has a significant association with self-rated health net of the effects of demographic, human capital and health risk factors. The final model shows that the effects of control variables are in the anticipated direction, with age, marital status, health risk, education and poverty statistically significant. However, the findings pertaining to civic engagement hold for men but not women. We conclude that civic engagement is a powerful and significant predictor of self-rated health status among refugee men living in poor communities, but not for women. Low literacy and persisting patriarchy may account for the non-significant association between civic engagement and health status among women in this context.

Global Genetics: Worldwide Considerations

A few years ago I sat on the dirt floor with a young childbearing Palestinian woman living in a refugee camp in Jordan. She was a carrier of thalassemia and spoke of the coming birth of the child she was carrying. She spoke of her fears for the child and the hope that this child would be born without the disease. Looking heavenward she said Enshallah [God willing] hoping that Divine Benevolence would assure a healthy outcome. While interviewing childbearing women in small villages in the highlands of Guatemala I noted a high incidence of cleft lip/cleft palate and neural tube defects that may be multifactorial associated with not only lack of dietary folic acid but also centuries of intermarriage in these closely knit communities. (excerpt)

Domestic violence in refugee camps in Jordan

International Journal of Gynecology & ObstetricsVolume 86, Issue 1 p. 67-69 Social issues in reproductive health/Brief communication Domestic violence in refugee camps in Jordan M Khawaja, Corresponding Author M Khawaja mk36@aub.edu.lb Center for Research on Population and Health 1, American University of Beirut, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut, LebanonFax: +961-1-744470Search for more papers by this author M Khawaja, Corresponding Author M Khawaja mk36@aub.edu.lb Center for Research on Population and Health 1, American University of Beirut, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut, LebanonFax: +961-1-744470Search for more papers by this author First published: 17 June 2004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgo.2004.04.008Citations: 25 New York Office: 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10017-2303, USA. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume86, Issue1July 2004Pages 67-69 RelatedInformation

Migration and the Reproduction of Poverty: The Refugee Camps in Jordan

SummaryThis study examines the link between poverty and migration into and out of camps, using 1999 household survey data on the refugee camp populations in Jordan and a binomial logistic regression. The findings show a clear clustering of poverty in the camps, where about one‐third of households are poor. Results from several nested regression models show that in‐migration is not the cause of persistent poverty in the camps. On the other hand, human capital variables, especially education, economic activity, and “social inheritance”, as well as demographic factors such as household headship and dependency rate have significant effects on poverty incidence. Some theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.