Mediated Lives: Waiting and Hope among Iraqi Refugees in Jordan

229 Pages·2022·1.285 MB·English

by  Mirjam Twigt

Mediated Lives
FORCED MIGRATION
General Editors: Tom Scott-Smith and Kirsten McConnachie
This series, published in association with the Refugees Studies Centre,
University of Oxford, refl ects the multidisciplinary nature of the
fi eld and includes within its scope international law, anthropology,
sociology, politics, international relations, geopolitics, social
psychology and economics.
Recent volumes:
Volume 43 Volume 38
Mediated Lives: Waiting and Hope among Iraqi Refugee Resettlement: Power, Politics, and
Refugees in Jordan Humanitarian Governance
Mirjam Twigt Edited by Adèle Garnier, Liliana Lyra Jubilut
and Kristin Bergtora Sandvik
Volume 42
Outsiders: Memories of Migration to and from Volume 37
North Korea Gender, Violence, Refugees
Markus Bell Edited by Susanne Buckley-Zistel and
Ulrike Krause
Volume 41
Latin America and Refugee Protection: Regimes, Volume 36
Logics and Challenges The Myth of Self-Reliance: Economic Lives inside a
Edited by Liliana Lyra Jubilut, Marcia Vera Liberian Refugee Camp
Espinoza and Gabriela Mezzanotti Naohiko Omata
Volume 40 Volume 35
Un-Settling Middle Eastern Refugees: Regimes Migration by Boat: Discourses of Trauma,
of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Middle East, Exclusion and Survival
Europe, and North America Lynda Mannik
Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Lucia Volk
Volume 34
Volume 39 Making Ubumwe: Power, State and Camps in
Structures of Protection? Rethinking Refugee Shelter Rwanda’s Unity-Building Project
Edited by Tom Scott-Smith and Mark E. Andrea Purdeková
Breeze
For a full volume listing, please see the series page on our website:
https//www.berghahnbooks.com/series/forced-migration
Mediated Lives
WAITING AND HOPE AMONG IRAQI REFUGEES IN JORDAN
Mirjam Twigt
berghahn
N E W Y O R K (cid:129) O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2022 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2022 Mirjam Twigt
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Twigt, Mirjam, author.
Title: Mediated Lives: Waiting and Hope among Iraqi Refugees in Jordan /
Mirjam Twigt.
Description: New York: Berghahn Books, 2022. | Series: Forced Migration;
volume 43 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021039724 (print) | LCCN 2021039725 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781800733435 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800733442 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Refugees—Iraq. | Refugees—Jordan—Amman. | Refugees—
Social aspects—Iraq. | Refugees—Social aspects—Jordan—Amman. | Iraqis—
Jordan—Amman—Social conditions. | Information technology—Social
aspects—Jordan—Amman. | Digital media—Social aspects—Jordan—Amman.
Classifi cation: LCC HV640.5.I76 T85 2022 (print) |
LCC HV640.5.I76 (ebook) | DDC 362.7/79140567—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039724
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021039725
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-80073-343-5 hardback
ISBN 978-1-80073-344-2 ebook
To Ibrahim, Taher, Mohamed and Oscar. I am so proud of you
and so happy that I get to be part of your journey.
For Anne-Maria. Welcome to this world! May our future be brighter.

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on Translation and Transliteration x
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction. Becoming and Being a (Dis)Connected Forced Migrant 1
1. ‘Life Is Like a Waiting Stop’: Situating Experiences
of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan’s Temporary Protection Context 28
2. Hoping for Solutions in a ‘Surrogate State’ 49
3. Tactics to Get ‘Unstuck’: Refugee Protests and
Seeking Alternative Means to Travel 71
4. Prolonged Legal Uncertainties and Their Interaction
with Virtual Home-Making Practices in Amman 83
5. The Mediation of Hope: Digital Technologies and
Affective Affordances in Iraqi Refugee Households 103
6. Post-humanitarian Shifts in Jordan’s Protection Space 123
7. Fast-Forward to 2018: Technologies towards Accountability
for UNHCR Jordan’s Persons of Concern 139
Conclusion. (Dis)Connectivity and the Politics of Hope 164
References 178
Index 209
Acknowledgements
ﻲﺘﻴﺑ ﰲ ﺖﺴﻟ ﺎﻧﺎﻓ يرﺼﻘﺘﻟا ﻦﻣ نيرﺬﻋ
I am sorry for my mistakes, for I am not in my home.
The above-mentioned comment was made by one of the many people whose
lives and stories are central in this book. She had invited me for lunch and, as
always, the food and the hospitality were amazing. It broke my heart – as of-
ten happened during encounters for this research and beyond – that she felt a
need to apologise. But of course, this woman was not in her home as she had
left that place when ISIS raided her village. In Jordan, she was making do
and she must have felt her hospitality suffered as a result. I use this sentence
here to express my gratitude towards all the Iraqi refugees I have met over
the years who have been so generous with sharing their stories, not so tem-
porary homes and meals with me – and to apologise that I am writing about
your experiences. I am writing ‘out of place’. I hope that I have represented
your stories and voices in a way that you feel does (some) justice to you. It is
my deepest hope that your future life journeys will be smoother, wherever
these may be. I am so happy to be a member of my Iraqi family. Without
you, this book would not have existed.
Professor Leah Bassel and Professor Helen Wood: thank you for believing
in me and in my project. And for being great role models: not just as femi-
nist professors, but as all-round wonderful people! Thank you to Professor
Thomas Tufte and Professor Marie Gillespie for your feedback and encour-
agement to pursue this book project. I am grateful of the British Academy
of Amman for providing me with additional funding and the necessary time
and space to further develop this book project, and to the people at CBRL –
Amman, in particular Carol Palmer and Firas Bq’ain for their grace and
kindness. For Andrea. And Sarah Elliot for the fun.
To all my fellow researchers and research activists, here, out there and
everywhere: your input enabled me to keep going. To Hamdan Al-Mansour
and Mette Stendevad, your persisting kindness is such an inspiration. Inshal-
lah bukra ahla! To all of you who I have pestered with chapters, sometimes
Acknowledgements | ix
very much a work in progress, and people who have inspired me in other
ways: Philip Seuferling, Katherina Lenner, Melissa Wall, Zoe Jordan, Lewis
Turner, Cecilia Sosa, Jordan Hayes, Anna Kvittingen, Anne Kaun, Kevin
Smets, Nerina Boursinou, Xanthe Whitaker and Sara de Jong. A special
word of thanks to Koen Leurs, who alongside proofreading a chapter was by
chance also my (not so anonymous) peer reviewer for the entire manuscript:
your enthusiasm and dedication are such an encouragement. And thanks
to my other anonymous peer reviewer, who pushed me to where I needed
to go. Thank you Maja Janmyr, Charlotte Lysa, M. Sanjeeb Hossain, Nora
Milch Johnsen, Abdullah Yassen and Khaled Zaza for your additional input,
encouragement in the fi nal stages and the warm welcome in Oslo.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Domenic Sherab for your patience and
effort for proofreading again and again, with so much love and diligence.
You are amazing!
Thank you to my family for surrounding me with love, for thinking of me
in your prayers and for being my home. And thank you to my friends, for
their love and laughter and for keeping me sane.
Thank you to anyone who reads this. May your kindness remain.