Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community-Based Aid Responses to Refugee Crises

博士论文研究：基于社区的难民危机援助应对措施

• 批准号: 1558871
• 负责人: Catherine Lutz
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-01 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1558871&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Community; Based

Since the 1990s, the United Nations has increasingly acknowledged the prolonged nature of refugee crises, and the need for humanitarian solutions that not only offer emergency relief to refugees but also address their long-term needs. Accordingly, it has called for a new "Community-Based Approach" to humanitarian aid, which integrates refugees in their neighboring countries through welfare programs and infrastructural support. The Syrian refugee crisis, however, throws this new approach in grave doubt. The sheer scale of civilian displacement, now reaching 4.3 million people, makes integration immeasurably difficult for countries neighboring Syria. With the mass exodus of refugees, it is now vital to understand how the refugee crisis is being managed in asylum countries. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, explores how humanitarian organizations negotiate the challenges of community-based aid programs in response to refugee crises. Malay Firoz, under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Lutz of Brown University, will examine how humanitarian organizations implement community-based aid programs in Jordan and Lebanon. As small developing countries, both Jordan and Lebanon are struggling to cope with the sudden influx of refugees, and their governments are anxious to prevent refugees from integrating. However, while the relatively stable Jordanian government has strictly regulated its borders and contained refugees in camps, domestic turmoil has prevented the Lebanese government from doing the same. The two countries therefore provide ideal locations for comparing how humanitarian organizations frame their official roles and responsibilities in different political contexts, how aid workers on the ground adopt or transform these framings in the course of everyday aid work, and what refugees expect from humanitarian organizations. In order to pursue these questions, the researcher will conduct twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork based in Amman and Beirut. He will employ a mixed-methods approach, including textual analysis of policy statements and institutional charters, semi-structured interviews with UN officials, aid workers and refugees, as well as participant observation in humanitarian field offices and refugee camps. The comparative findings from this research will provide insight into the effectiveness of community-based aid programs amidst large-scale displacement, and help humanitarian policy-makers design programs specifically suited to different contexts.

自1990年代以来，联合国日益认识到难民危机的长期性，认识到需要采取人道主义解决办法，不仅向难民提供紧急救济，而且解决他们的长期需求。因此，它呼吁对人道主义援助采取新的“以社区为基础的办法”，通过福利方案和基础设施支持将难民融入邻国。然而，叙利亚难民危机使这种新方法受到严重质疑。平民流离失所的规模之大，目前已达430万人，使叙利亚邻国难以融入社会。随着难民的大规模外流，现在至关重要的是要了解庇护国如何管理难民危机。这个项目，培训研究生如何进行严格的实地科学考察，探讨人道主义组织如何谈判的挑战，以社区为基础的援助计划，以应对难民危机。在布朗大学凯瑟琳·卢茨博士的监督下，马来·菲罗兹将研究人道主义组织如何在约旦和黎巴嫩实施以社区为基础的援助计划。作为发展中小国，约旦和黎巴嫩都在努力科普突然涌入的难民，两国政府急于阻止难民融入社会。然而，尽管相对稳定的约旦政府严格监管其边境，并将难民收容在难民营中，但国内动荡使黎巴嫩政府无法采取同样的行动。因此，这两个国家提供了理想的地点，可以比较人道主义组织如何在不同的政治背景下确定其官方角色和责任，实地援助工作者如何在日常援助工作中采用或改变这些框架，以及难民对人道主义组织的期望。为了探讨这些问题，研究人员将在安曼和贝鲁特进行为期12个月的人种学实地考察。他将采用混合方法，包括对政策声明和机构章程进行文本分析，对联合国官员、援助人员和难民进行半结构化访谈，以及在人道主义外地办事处和难民营进行参与式观察。这项研究的比较结果将为大规模流离失所中基于社区的援助计划的有效性提供洞察力，并帮助人道主义政策制定者设计专门适合不同情况的计划。