Wa’ed Alshoubaki

Department of Public Administration, University of Jordan

Jordan

w.alshoubaki@ju.edu.jo

The impact of Syrian refugees on Jordan: A framework for analysis

Michael Harris

Department of Public Administration, Tennessee State University

USA

mharris50@Tnstate.edu

Abstract. The civil war in Syria has caused a mass influx of Syrian refugees into other countries throughout the region and beyond. Jordan has received a large share of Syrian refugees, currently totaling to the alarming number of 1.2 mln people. Addressing the need of Syrian refugees has drained the resources of Jordanian government and has had its substantial impact on Jordanian society overall. In an effort to better understand the humanitarian, political, economic, sociocultural and environmental challenges to Jordan and its government, this study has developed a comprehensive analytical framework. The comprehensive analytical framework has been developed based on the system thinking approach and the systematic review of gray literature and peer-reviewed articles. This framework provides a better capacity to discover the potential consequences of a massive refugee influx and covers the vital factors based on the realistic criteria regarding the burden of refugees on the formulation of policies. The analytical framework is applied to Jordan as the receiving state since the influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan in 2011 to 2015 and it potentially could be used as a comparative analytical tool for other receiving states.

Received: September, 2017

1st Revision: December, 2017

Accepted: April, 2018

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2018/11-2/11

JEL Classification: F22, J69

Keywords: analytical framework, humanitarian crisis, Jordan, receiving state, Syrian refugees