Background Reading:
- Resources for Migration and Refugee Histories of the Middle East: This reading list from Dr. Stacy Farrenthold, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, introduces the reader to core themes in migration histories of the Middle East.
- Amnesty International: Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants: This article from Amnesty International explains the difference between a refugee, an asylum seeker and a migrant, and Amnesty International’s role in supporting
- Refugee Crisis: History of the Middle East - 1800 to Present
- GW IMES Faculty Book Spotlight: Life Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicament and Palestinian Refugee Politics: In his transcribed conversation GW Professor Ilana Feldman, provides her insight on the ongoing Palestinian refugee situation, humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, and international humanitarian aid sector.
Timeline - Key Events:
- UNICEF: A timeline of the Syrian Civil War and Refugee Crisis: A timeline from 2011 - today of the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII.
- United States Citizenship and Immigration Services: This timeline traces the major events and policies that affected refugee admissions under Immigration and Naturalization Service, a U.S. government agency that manages the U.S. immigration system
Key terms/concepts:
Podcasts, Presentations, Webinars, and Event Recordings:
- Refugees in Middle Eastern History/the Middle East in refugee history 1918-39: The Middle East today seems indelibly associated with refugees, from the people displaced by current and recent conflicts in Syria, Yemen, or Iraq to the Palestinians who have lived as refugees since 1948. This conversation explores an earlier period, between the first and second world wars, to ask what role refugees played in Middle Eastern history in the years when its modern states emerged—and what role the Middle East has played in modern refugee history.
- Karen Culcasi - Displacement and Belonging: This webinar explores the lived realities of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Jordan, with a particular focus on their senses of belonging to different places. By focusing on Jordan, a Global South state that hosts among the largest number of refugees per capita, this webinar highlights the human side of displacement and offers humanitarian options for managing refugee flows globally.
Photo Slideshows:
- Syrian Refugee Children, World Vision: This photo series from World Vision, an organization that provides assistance to refugees, tells the story of life through the eyes of Syrian refugee children living in an informal tent settlement in Lebanon.
- Refugee, IDP and migrant health photo library, World Health Organization: There are an estimated 1 billion migrants in the world today of whom 258 million are international migrants and 763 million internal migrants – one in seven of the world’s population. This rapid increase of population movement has important public health implications, which is showcased in the photo library.
Teaching/Classroom Materials:
- Discriminatory development aid- a look at Jordan Syria Refugee Response - Amid persistent crises within and surrounding the Middle East, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has risen as a leading global host for refugees. Collectively, the nation hosts over 3 million refugees and migrants originating from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Palestine. In this multimedia piece, researcher Shaddin Almasri explores the differential treatment of migrants based on race and ethnicity within Jordan’s labor sector with a central focus on the Jordan Refugee Response Plan.
- UNHCR Teaching Material about Refugees Guide : The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides a collection of teaching materials on refugees, asylum and migration for primary and secondary education (resources for age groups from 6-18; videos, lesson plans, worksheets, class activities)
- Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Outreach Program: Ideas for Teaching about the Arab Refugee Crisis
- Friends in Need: Refugees Are People, Not Problems: This lesson plan from Teachinghumanrights.com draws on the modern struggles refugees are currently facing as well as drawing historical parallels
- Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route: In this interactive simulation, students will embark on a journey to escape Syria, based on the real stories of Syrians who have made the journey
- Syllabus - Forced Displacement and Migration in the Middle East - This syllabus for GWU’s course on Forced Displacement and Migration in the Middle East offers countless readings on forced migration including refugees and internal displacement, climate change and mobility, labor migration, determinants of immigration policy, and the role of non-state and humanitarian aid.
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