Hosting Guests, Creating Citizens: Models of Refugee Administration in Jordan and Egypt

This article explores the modern history of Jordan and Egypt as Nation States, polities that have also hosted major refugee movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. It focuses on the development of refugee management models in Egypt and Jordan and argues that four models have developed over time: integration meaning citizenship, separation designating camps and distinct services for refugees, temporary absorption signalling inclusion of refugees into public services but without citizenship, and exclusion marking a clear limitation of public services and legal protections. Jordan and Egypt have long histories of hosting large populations of forced migrants, and these models have shifted in light of national policies, international agreements and disagreements, and domestic considerations. Historically inclusive models have shifted to the current models that are exclusionary or create a temporary absorption scheme. We conclude by showing how the current models are a result of international aid regimes and national policies that create hierarchies and a bureaucratisation of aid that results in different models for refugees based on their countries of origin.