Description

Displacement in and from Iraq urgently requires analysis and understanding. Recent research has been commissioned largely by migration agencies, charities and aid organisations with the aim of collecting basic data about the size and distribution of displaced populations, and refugees’ legal status and immediate needs. This new project adopts a different approach: it is an academic initiative which aims to learn about how people became refugees - why they decided to leave Iraq, how they took their decisions to depart, who and what influenced those decisions, and what has happened to those who did not join them.

This work is important: much research on refugees worldwide ignores the lived experience of being a refugee. Most research also ignores a key issue – how do people make decisions in situations of crisis? We address this directly, asking how people make life-changing decisions when they are under great pressure from war, civil conflict, repression, and economic or social crisis.

Some people are compelled to move by the immediate threat of violence or other potential harm. In other cases decisions are more complex: they may be influenced by family or community members at home or abroad, by information which comes from colleagues at work, from professional associations, religious groups, political parties and/or from the media. And they may be shaped by the effect on families or communities of earlier decisions of others to leave, so that those remaining feel that there is little to gain by remaining in their homes. Do people in these circumstances choose to leave – or have they been left with no option but to go?
There is also the question of those who remain because age, illness, infirmity or other compelling factors apparently prevent them from leaving. Have they “chosen” not to become migrants – or are they, in effect, obliged to stay?
Refugees are often viewed as “victims” - people unable to make decisions and unable to act. This research takes a different view, accepting that people do make choices – even under difficult circumstances. We want to learn about those choices as a way of understanding the real lives of refugees today.
Little is known about mass displacement as a process. In the case of Iraq, displacement takes many forms, from changes in daily routine, self-imposed curfews and avoidance of certain areas, to movements en masse to remote locations. Initially individuals may be involved; later families, households and entire communities may be affected. Refugees may make multiple journeys, experiencing “secondary” displacement and frustrated attempts at return.

This project examines circumstances and time-lines associated with migratory movements, focusing on decision-making processes, sources of information and the role of networks. It views refugees as active subjects in the migration process, considering their circumstances, strategies and aspirations. It addresses key questions about predicaments and options:

to what extent do individuals, families and/ or communities exercise choice about the timing and nature of their journeys?
what information is available– from kin, communities, diasporic groups, employment networks, political and religious institutions, state bodies and the mass media?
what are expectations of security in Iraq and/ or abroad? How are destinations selected?
who influences decision-making? How do gender and inter-generational relations affect decisions and patterns of movement in families and communities?
do cumulative processes prompt mass migration? Is there a threshold associated with generalised displacement and/or return?
what factors influence those who do not leave? What are the implications for those who remain in “post-migration” environments?
what is the nature of transnational networks and how do they influence decisions about onward movement and return?

Teama of researchers will be interviewing 30 to 40 refugees in each of four locations – Amman, Damascus, Cairo and Istanbul in early 2009. We wish to conduct detailed interviews using the “open-ended” approach, in which informants have an opportunity to relate their experiences, describe their circumstances and express their aspirations. We need only a minimum of personal information – the emphasis in such interviews is on encouraging refugees to explain why, as they see it, they have become migrants and how their lives have been shaped by the decision to leave Iraq.

We aim to speak to a wide range of displaced people in each of the four locations. We wish to contact refugees of various social groups and statuses – business people; professionals such as doctors and engineers; academics; teachers; artists; people working in industry and people from the countryside. Wherever possible we aim for equal representation of men and women, young and old. We do not start from the assumption, made by many organisations, that Iraqi refugees must be approached on the basis of their religious or ethnic identity – although that may be an issue informants wish to raise in the interviews.

All researchers will take part in short but intensive training sessions in which they will be familiarised with means of conducting the open-ended, semi-structured interview. Each will be provided with a list of key topics to discuss with informants and which can be used as a guide. Training will also prepare researchers to facilitate discussion on any relevant issues within the broad agenda of the project.

It is expected that interviews will take up to (but not more than) two hours. Each will be recorded – with permission of the interviewees - on a ditigal device provided for each researcher, who will transcribe the recording in full, noting all questions and answers, together with comments on any special issues relating to the interview. There will be feedback sessions with the local project co-ordinator at which researchers can pass on their observations following interviews - and so that we are able to refine and develop the interview process as our understanding of key issues develops.
Findings will be published in a written report and on websites in 2010. The work of all researchers will be fully acknowledged.

The project provides an invaluable opportunity to develop advanced skills in social research – and to learn much about key issues in the fields of migration and refugee studies.

Principal investigators

Geraldine Chatelard, Ifpo, Amman
Philip Marfleet, Refugee Studies, University of East London, UK

Team Leaders

Istanbul: Didem Danis (Galatasaray University)
Cairo: Sara Sadek (Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, American University of Cairo)
Damascus: Mohamed Kamel Dorai (Ifpo)
Amman: Geraldine Chatelard (Ifpo)