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The Politics of Temporariness and the Materiality of Refugee Camps

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Arrival Infrastructures

Abstract

The aim in this chapter is to analyze the temporality of arrival in refugee camps. The prolonged stay of refugees in a number of camps calls into question the widespread notion that refugees’ arrival is bounded in time. It is argued that in many camps, arrival does not end, but evolves in varied forms within the framework of a “lasting temporariness.” Drawing from the case of the Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, the chapter shows that the alternative ways in which “arrival” may be understood are induced by shifting meanings of temporariness; in the camp, it is a field of political struggle in which multiple actors—such as residents, state authorities, international organizations, landowners, and political movements—are involved. Furthermore, conceptions of temporariness impact on, and can be read from, the material interventions which take place in the built environment of camps.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I am grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE) for supporting my research stays, as well as the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) for hosting me while doing my fieldwork. This research was supported by a SNSF fellowship (161164).

  2. 2.

    All translations from French are mine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Lucas Oesch

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  1. Lucas Oesch
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Bruno Meeus

  2. University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Karel Arnaut

  3. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Bas van Heur

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Oesch, L. (2019). The Politics of Temporariness and the Materiality of Refugee Camps. In: Meeus, B., Arnaut, K., van Heur, B. (eds) Arrival Infrastructures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91167-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91167-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91166-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91167-0

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