Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper investigates the relationship between displacement and “waiting” among Syrian refugees in Mafraq, a site of urban displacement in Jordan. Based on an active understanding of “waiting", its study provides a diagnostic of how Syrian refugees’ temporal and spatial mobilities are intertwined.

Paper long abstract:

While the anthropological study of displaced people tends to focus on "people on the run" or in refugee camps, the proposed paper investigates the relationship between displacement and the flip side of forced mobility, i.e. "waiting", in cities. Drawing on ongoing PhD fieldwork with Syrian refugees in Mafraq, a site of urban displacement in Jordan, my research coincides with the protraction of the Syrian civil war, a change of international development paradigms and increased legal limbo and precarity for Syrians in Jordan. The paper presupposes an active understanding of "waiting" not as an absence, but as filled with multiple and sometimes contradictory activities.

In Mafraq, Syrian refugees experience temporal dimensions of "waiting" at different time scales and for various purposes, such as waiting to sign up for humanitarian assistance, aid delivery or resettlement abroad. With respect to disrupted life projects and renewed attempts at "making plans", my research focuses on how informants deal with unpredictability, resulting from intransparent criteria for access to aid or visa and the confusing spectrum of humanitarian actors on the ground.

Furthermore, the study of "waiting" provides a diagnostic of how Syrian refugees' temporal and spatial mobilities are intertwined. Having turned into the final stop of interrupted migration journeys, Mafraq, a challenging urban environment marked by gender segregation, urban sprawl and the absence of a proper public sphere, produces specific forms of "waiting" experiences in space. How Syrians form knowledge about and navigate urban space is tightly linked to city landmarks associated with the humanitarian apparatus.