The movement of displaced people, migrants and refugees has become increasingly important around the world, leading to a need for increased scrutiny of global responses and policies towards migration. This book focuses on the Middle East, where many nations are part of this global phenomenon as both home, transit and/or host country.

Refugee Governance, State and Politics in the Middle East examines the patterns of legal, political and institutional responses to large-scale Syrian forced migration. It analyses the motivations behind neighbouring countries' policy responses, how their responses change over time and how they have an impact on regional and global cooperation. Looking in particular at Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, three of the world's top refugee hosting countries, this book explores how refugee governance differs across countries and why they diverge. To theorize variations, the book introduces multi-pattern and multi-stage refugee governance models as two complementary analytical frameworks. The book further argues that each of these three states' refugee responses is constructed based on three main factors: internal political interests, economic-development related concerns, and foreign policy objectives as well as interactions among them. The book's categorizations and models (on policy fields, actors, stages, patterns and driving forces) provide analytical tools to researchers for comparative analyses.

Scholars and students of Comparative Politics, International Relations, Refugee Studies, Global Governance and Middle Eastern Studies will find this book a useful contribution to their fields.

About the Author

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

Reviews

"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, Sahin Mencutek 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, Sahin Mencutek 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, Sahin-Mencutek 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. Sahin Mencutek'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 t

Book Information
ISBN 9780367664404
Author Zeynep Sahin Mencutek
Format Paperback
Page Count 284
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g