The project has sought to understand the conditions of displaced Iraqis in a comparative study with other refugee and non-refugee populations in urban settings. It examines the needs of Iraqi refugees with regard to health, education, livelihood, shelter, security, refugee well-being and the burden on host and donor countries. The study has concerned itself with: ◉◉ Host country governmental services for refugees; ◉◉ Relevant UNHCR activities and policies; and, ◉◉ Internationally-funded refugee programs and their local implementing partners. The section on health mainstreaming has been developed and submitted as a separate report.
CH3: Refugee Livelihoods
CH1: Introduction, Aims and Methodology
1.1 Methodology and Interviews The methods consisted of interviews, focus groups and discussions with refugees and stakeholders as well as a review of the relevant literature. The interviews included refugees, locals, local NGOs, INGOs, UN employees and officials and employees of the Government of Jordan (GoJ) as well as site visits to service-providing bodies, support institutions, local NGOs, homes and medical facilities. In total, the team leader spent more than seven weeks in Jordan conducting research, and a research assistant spent a summer interning at an INGO. The secondary sources included academic articles and books, reports and papers by INGOs, NGOs and UN bodies, and other relevant publications. The primary source interviews consisted of two visits one year apart to UNHCR (8 interviews) and UNRWA (5 interviews), as well as three research trips in which we conducted interviews with Jordanian governmental officials in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning, 11 interviews with local NGOs and CBOs, 23 interviews with INGOs, 90 interviews with Iraqi refugees (57 men and 33 women), ten interviews with other refugees, 30 interviews with Palestinians and Jordanian citizens and six interviews with Palestinians without Jordanian citizenship. We also visited a variety of local institutions including three female-headed Community Based Organizations in different lower-income neighborhoods in Amman, a church, a church clinic, a clinic specifically for refugees, a hospital, two vocational-training institutes, two language-training programs, a number of Palestinian refugee camps (including Gaza camp), a day-long outing with Iraqi refugee families and home visits to Iraqi, Sudanese and Somali households in Amman and Zarqa. Interviews with Refugees and Locals:
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CH3: Refugee Livelihoods
Chapter 1: Introduction, Aims and Methodology