Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East

Zeynep Şahin Mencütek is an Associate Fellow, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and a Senior Researcher, Swedish Research Institute, Istanbul, Turkey.

"This original and meticulous study of comparative refugee governance is a welcome addition to scholarly work on refugee movement and state responses. Focusing on and analyzing detailed empirical data from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, Şahin Mencütek identifies the humanitarian and political response of each of these countries to the protracted Syrian mass migration challenges from 2011-2018. Examining the variations in governance across these three countries as well as the changing patterns of governance over time, Şahin Mencütek captures with rigour and distinctiveness multi-pattern and multi-stage refugee governance that states formulate and implement in response to the mass influx. This book makes an important and timely contribution to refugee studies in general and Middle Eastern displacement in particular." — Dawn Chatty, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration, University of Oxford, UK"Bringing together a wealth of primary and secondary sources as well as interviews conducted during fieldwork in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, Şahin-Mencütek has written a masterful work on state refugee policy in the Global South. Carefully constructed case studies are analyzed using a theoretical framework that integrates the role of policy instruments, levels of implementation and stages of policy evolution to explain neighboring country responses to the Syria refugee crisis. Şahin Mencütek’s book will be the gold standard against which subsequent works on state refugee policy will be measured." — Laurie Brand, Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies, University of Southern California, USA, and Chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association "Movement of people across international borders has emerged as a leading factor in shaping and reshaping both domestic and international politics, contributing therefore to the utility of "linkage politics" as an explanatory model of today’s global politics. Zeynep Sahin’s book Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East intends to examine the motivations behind Syrian neighboring countries; policy responses to mass migration and refugee influx, how these responses change over time and how they have an impact on regional and global cooperation. The book shows in a brilliant way the very interesting dynamics and the interplay between local interests, economic policies and international politics, and promises to be a new addition to the literature in the fields of Migrations and Refuges Studies and Middle East Politics." — Zaid Eyadat, Professor of Political Science and Human Rights, University of Jordan"Based on extensive field research covering Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - three of the world's top refugee hosting countries - this book is a very timely work. I welcome this valuable piece to the field of Refugee Studies. The author makes an original contribution to the field by introducing multi-pattern and multi-stage refugee governance models. Zeynep Şahin successfully and lucidly elaborates the political and legal responses of these states to Syrian refugee flows with a particular focus on their internal political interests, economic-development related concerns, and foreign policy objectives." — Prof. Dr Ayhan Kaya, Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism, Turkey"Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East provides a timely, theoretically and empirically rich comparative analysis that explores refugee governance in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Şahin Mencütek masterfully develops a comprehensive examination of the development, motivations and shifts over time of refugee governance frameworks. This book is a welcome addition to the field of comparative immigration and refugee studies, addressing the underrepresentation of Global South responses to migration, particularly within the Middle East, a region that has over the past several years hosted more refugees than any other region." — Kim Rygiel, Associate Professor, Political Science, Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada"Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East is an ambitious book that advances our understanding of refugee governance in the Global South by analyzing in parallel three important cases of refugee-hosting states in the Middle East. Moreover, it helps define a framework for other scholars of migration to consider which factors Şahin Mencütek identifies—international politics, national security and domestic politics, and eco-nomic development—matter most in determining host state policies toward refugees in other regions and under what circumstances." – Lama Mourad, Assistant Professor, Norman Pater-son School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Canada

• 1. IntroductionPart I Literature, Categorizations and Models2. The literature on state responses to mass migration in the Global South3. Categorizations and models for comparative analysis of refugee migration governancePart II Turkey4. Patterns and stages of refugee governance in Turkey5. Understanding the shifts in refugee governance and refugee politics of TurkeyPart III Lebanon6. Lebanon’s responses to Syrian mass migration7. Forces behind Lebanese governance patterns and refugee politicsPart IV Jordan8. Jordanian national refugee governance and its responses to Syrian mass migration9. Drivers of Jordanian refugee governance and refugee politicsPart V Comparison and Conclusions10. Comparison of refugee governance in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan11. Conclusion