GLBL 298: Global Studies in Jordan Immigration and integration in Jordan 3 credits (1 credit on-campus; 2 credits in Jordan) Instructor: Eman Saadah, Ph.D. Office hours: 12-1 MW Email: esaadah2@illinois.edu Phone: 217-244-4515 Course Description: This seminar provides key step towards developing a strong foundation for understanding globally-sensitive issues targeting immigration and integration and evaluating it from a regional perspective. We will investigate the social and political landscapes of the Middle East, focusing on Jordan. We will start by presenting a historical overview, focusing more on recent events shaping modern Jordan and laying the foundation for its current social and political realities. We will examine readings from a wide range of disciplines: political science, anthropology, history, etc. In sum, this seminar helps evaluate the role played by Jordan and its impact on the international community, in general, and on the Middle East, in particular. Course Objectives Through this course, on campus and abroad, we aim to: -Increase students understanding of refugee issues globally through invoking examples from different parts of the world: Somalia, Mali, Rohingya. - Enhance students knowledge and understanding of the increasingly complicated issue of immigration affecting Jordan. - Evaluate how the local communities in Jordan cope with refugees from neighboring countries. - Examine the current status of immigrants, their everyday living conditions, and the effort played by local authorities to integrate them into the local communities. -Enhance the knowledge of the cultural, social, and political realities in the Middle East and its impact on the World -Develop critical thinking through weighing issues of regional significance, mainly the political scene in neighboring countries such as Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq and the impact it has in creating waves of immigrants into neighboring Jordan. As well, we evaluate its effect on the global domain. -Introduce students to basic conversational skills in Jordanian Arabic
What is a refugee? According to UNHCR a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. Through this wider context, this seminar aims at exploring the reasons for refugee crisis and major solutions to address their problem such as refugee camps and resettlement. We will shed light on various challenges such as cultural and economic hardships, issues of identity and belonging, language barrier etc. that face refugees during the process of transition after the displacement has taken place. The Middle East and US foreign policy: Through this course students will recognize and evaluate the impact of US foreign policy decision making on the Middle East, in general, and Jordan, in particular. US s foreign policy in the Middle East has been intertwined with close political relations and unconventional support to Israel for the past few decades. Supported by the West in general, Israel managed to confiscate land belonging to Arabs and as a result of that hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. This has great impact on neighboring Jordan being the country mostly receiving displaced Palestinian refugees from the West Bank. Having said that, US- Arab relations will be discussed, evaluated, and critiqued nevertheless it will not be the main focus in this course per se. UN agencies in Jordan Students will also be introduced to the role played by humanitarian world agencies such as United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan. Through visits to local offices, students will be able to evaluate the extent and significance of the role played by these internationally recognized agencies in assessing and providing to refugees needs and responding to human disasters as they unfold. Moreover, Students will evaluate the involvements of UN agencies in Jordan in major fields such as primary education and health services. Thus, students engagement with local communities through meeting people, examining their living conditions, and speaking to local representatives will enable them sense real life challenges and obstacles plaguing refugees and how UN agencies helped alleviate some of them. The main question/theme of this course: Our on-campus portion of this course will lay the foundation for understanding the global as well as the local perspective on the issue of immigration and integration through examining the movement of significant number of population from one place to another in different parts of the world. In particular, the historical, social, political, and cultural scene in Jordan will be examined in detail. In preparation for the study-abroad component, students will learn: 1) the definition of a refugee, reasons for refugee crisis, and discuss some historical as well as recent examples of movements that happened world-wide; 2) The main causes behind the complicated humanitarian crisis of now millions of refugees in Jordan; 3) How the international community has responded to these massive difficulties facing a small country with limited resources; 4) Challenges facing children of immigrants and their effort to integrate into the host
country. We try to answer these questions by objectively examining historical facts and understanding their impact locally as well as globally. The study-abroad component will expose students to immigrant communities who are incorporated within local ones. They will be challenged to evaluate and critique successes as well as failures to respond to humanitarian crisis throughout the past decades as well as more recent ones. Students will have a unique opportunity to get first-hand experience examining the living conditions of refugees displaced in Jordan. They will reflect on this experience by actively discussing these facts with one another, writing about it, and comparing their prior knowledge of the subject matter with what they witness in the field. Grading: This course will be graded based on the following scale: A+= 97-100% A= 93-96% A-= 90-92% B+= 87-89% B= 83-86% B-= 80-82% C+= 77-79% C= 73-76% C-= 70-72% D+= 67-69% D= 63-66% D-= 60-62% F= below 60 General Course Requirements (minimum) This course is worth 3 credits: 1 credit for the on campus portion and 2 credits for the abroad portion in Jordan. Course requirements on Campus Participation and attendance: students are required to read the assigned material prior to attending their classes on the on-campus meeting days. They are expected to be active participants in the intellectual argument stemming from their assigned readings and are encouraged to provide their interpretation/analysis based on knowledge gained/learned outside of class or through their overseas visits. Students are required to contribute to discussions taking place before and during our visits while we are in Jordan. Moreover, students are encouraged to have an active role during the language instruction portion of the class. They are introduced to beginning level Jordanian Arabic. In each class, they are asked to team with a partner and practice their Arabic conversational skills in pairs as well as in groups. Students are HIGHLY urged to be in class on time and not to miss classes except in cases of illness, family emergency, and things of that nature. Students must provide legitimate documentation (a note from Mckinley or a letter from the Dean s office) to justify their absence; otherwise, one percentage point
will be deducted from your attendance grade for every undocumented absence. Students arriving 10 minutes late to class, we will be allowed to attend; however, they are marked absent for that day. 10 % of final grade Assignment 1: Pre-departure proposal on a major issue concerning Palestinian refugees in Jordan since World War II. You may want to briefly investigate how the newly established Kingdom of Jordan and then young King Hussein had to deal with the Palestinian refugee problem and the conditions leading to the significant increase of population rates in the East Bank. In specific, students need to examine first waves of refugees into the East bank of the Jordanian Kingdom, making it one of the earlier steps impacting the demographic layout in Jordan. Students need to consider why and how and for what reasons Jordan was forced to cope with Palestinian refugees. In addition, how issues of identity and citizenship have helped Palestinian refugees assimilate/become rejected by the political, social, and cultural landscape in Jordan. You will pick an issue; do a preliminary research, and submit a proposal stating why you will investigate this topic and what would be the necessary observations onsite to inform your research, and what you hope to explore on the ground. You need to prepare a set of questions that you will ask to locals. The proposal should be one-page, double-spaced, and submitted by the due date (second week of classes) on the course management system (Moodle). Because of rapidly changing events in the region, your topic could also be on Iraqi or Syrian refugees. Please keep in mind that you might not have access to Iraqi refugees onsite since many have been relocated since the Gulf War. You will have access to Syrian refugees depending on whether we will be granted clearance to visit their camps. House visits to Syrian refugee families will be arranged. 25% of final grade Course requirements in Jordan Assignment 2: Final project is due within the first week of arrival to Jordan. You are expected to submit 8-10 page paper that is based on your pre-departure proposal. You should incorporate several techniques to inform your original research questions. These include observations, data collections, field notes, conversations with native speakers as well as data from media outlets and academic sources. The final product should be a proper research paper that includes background, research questions, results, analysis and conclusion. 25% of final grade Assignment 3: Journal entries. Students are asked to write field notes day by day while they are in Jordan. These field notes are descriptive as well as analytical. Students are expected to provide their feedback and reflections on issues they encounter or witness in their visits abroad. They should utilize their previous knowledge from class lectures and independently-performed research into the process of reflecting and gaining deeper understanding of the humanitarian problem of refugees in Jordan. This should be uploaded to Moodle in the final day abroad. 20% of final grade
Assignment 4: Due in the last couple of days of the trip. A 10-minute reflective Power Point presentation of main activities undertaken abroad. This should include photographs of major places that were visited. Students are expected to provide a brief description of the place, purpose of the visit, and the connection between this and events/ideas discussed in class. Students should briefly discuss major demographic/migration trends affecting the visited areas and changing its population growth. Students should point out how this experience has changed their perception of refugee-related issues and what are the three most remarkable/new things they learned by taking this course. 20% of final grade Course Schedule: OUTLINE OF PRE-DEPARTURE TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS All readings will be available on the course website created via Moodle Day 1: Setting the Context Introductions of professor and students. General goals of Program Course format and expectations syllabus is discussed and on-campus and study abroad components are explained Establish problem for case study Examine the problem of refugees from a global perspective Understanding global integration and its impact on local communities learning about the Middle East, focusing on Jordan Language instruction: greetings and leave taking Ø Hindwan, S. (2010). The dynamics of refugee problems. Journal of Peace studies, 17. (political science) Ø Malkki, L. (1995). From Refugee Studies to the national order of things. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24: 495-523. (Anthropology) Ø Salibi, K. (1993). The Modern History of Jordan. I. B. Tauris: London New York. pp. 1-12 & 108-119. Ø Gelber, Y. (2001). The historical background. In The Palestinian refugees: old problems-new solutions. Edited by Joseph Giant and Edward J. Perkins. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. pp. 1-33. Ø A publication by UNRWA (2012) available on line at: http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=66 & http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=100 Ø Language handout
Day 2: Case Study Module 1 Survey of Jordan s history from World War II to the present day Exploring social and political relativity in Jordan Political events in the region and its impact on migration and demographic trends local, regional, and global implications language instruction: self introduction Assignment 1 is due (see above course requirements on campus) Ø Salibi, K. (1993). The Modern History of Jordan. I.B. Tauris: London and New York. pp.13-30. Ø O Connell, J. (2011). King s Counsel. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp. 95-109. Ø O Connell, J. (2011). King s Counsel. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp. 144-156. Ø We will watch and later on discuss selections from the movie Lawrence of Arabia. Ø Language handout Day 3: Case Study Module 2 Comparing and contrasting the regional scene of the refugee problem integration of refugees in Jordan (national identity) refugees and their camps in Jordan, comparing and contrasting the situation with Lebanon From migrants to citizens, comparing and contrasting migrants situation in Jordan with ones in the US Language instruction: How are you? sequence Ø Haddad, Mohanna. (2001). Palestinian refugees in Jordan and national identity: 1948-1999. In The Palestinian refugees: Old problems-new solutions. Edited by Joseph Giant and Edward J. Perkins. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. pp. 150-169. Ø Khawaja, Marwan. (2003). Migration and the Reproduction of Poverty: The Refugee Camps in Jordan. International Migration, Volume 41, Issue 2, pp. 27-57. Ø Firro, Kais. (2001). Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1982. In The Palestinian refugees: Old problems-new solutions. Edited by Joseph Giant and Edward J. Perkins. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. Pp. 193-200. Ø Language handout Day 4: Case study Module 3
the start of the Gulf War and the beginning of a long-term crisis in the Middle East Iraqi refugees in Jordan: their plight and living conditions Palestinians from Iraq: re-living the tragedy Language instruction: Question (e.g., what is this?, where is? etc.) and answer Ø A publication by AMNESTY International. (2008). Rhetoric and reality: the Iraqi refugee crisis. pp. 2-9, 16-21 & 62-67. Ø Chatelard, Geraldine. (2010). Jordan: a refugee haven. Available on line at: http://www.migrationinformation.org/profiles/display.cfm?id=794 Ø Iraqis in Jordan: their number and characteristics. Report by Fafo. pp. 2-25. Available on line at: http://www.fafo.no/ais/middeast/jordan/ij.pdf Ø Language handout Day 5: Case study Module 4 Background information: al-asad regime in Syria and Jordanian-Syrian relationships The origin of the conflict and the start of the uprising in 2011 The extent of the tragedy The current status of Syrian refugees Language instruction: each student teams with a partner and present a skit to class Ø Goldsmith, Leon. (2011). Syria s Alawites and the politics of sectarian insecurity: a Kkaldunian Perspective. Ortadoğu Etütleri, Volume 3, No 1.pp. 33-60. Ø Landis, Joshua. (2012). The Syrian uprising of 2011: why the Asad regime is likely to survive to 2013. Middle East Policy, vol. 19, issue 1, pp. 72-84. News articles Ø Jordan: country hosting over 137,000 Syrian refugees says minister. Adnkronos International. (2012). Available on line at: http://www.adnkronos.com/ign/aki/english/security/jordan- Country-hosting-over-137000-Syrian-refugees-says-minister_313511910111.html Ø Syrian refugee registrations pass 30,000 amid funding shortfall UN. The Jordan Times. (2012). Available on line at: http://jordantimes.com/syrian-refugee-registrations-pass-30000- amid-funding-shortfall----un Ø Watching several videos on You Tube on the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Day 6: Case study Module 5 In the remaining time, students will engage in critically evaluating the situation in Jordan and present multiple disciplinary and cultural perspectives into how the international community can be of more assistance to Jordan, its citizens, as well as refugees within its borders. This will involve final preps for group travel in which each student submits fieldwork plan to instructor and stating objectives of taking this trip to Jordan. In addition to language instruction presented to students thus far, they will learn useful Arabic phrases and expressions in order to enable them create small talk and interact with local citizens. Students will also have the opportunity to ask questions on topics of crucial importance about their presence in a foreign country such as: social norms, appropriate dress code, etc. Ø Kanafani, G. (1983). Men in the Sun. Translated by H. Kilpatrick. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press. In the Field: Students are introduced to the social and political realities/challenges facing Palestinians as well as Syrians in Jordan. They are asked to reflect on those by keeping on-site field notes which would eventually evolve to daily journals. Please refer to assignment 3 above. Assignment 3 is due Student presentations The group will meet in Jordan for final synthesis/discussions about their experiences. The final synthesis project will be students presentations where each student is given 10 minutes to present and highlight one important aspect/issue that has been previously discussed in class and faced/observed in Jordan. Please refer to assignment 4 above. Students will also prepare for a poster presentation at GS Annual Reception. This is a collaborative effort where students are asked to produce only one poster. They are expected to contribute equally to different components in the poster (a brief overview of the main topic on immigration, major questions, documenting various trips and visits they took in Jordan, implications and conclusions). The poster will use the standard campus research poster template found at: http://identitystandards.illinois.edu/graphicstandardsmanual/othermedia/posterpresentation.html Assignment 4 is due
Tentative daily plans in Jordan in the period December 30, 2015 January 11, 2016 All daily plans are subject to change Num Day location Entrance fee 1 Tue 12/30 Drive to hotel Arrival at 7:00 PM 2 Wed 12/31 Amman Get phones visit Yarmouk University 3 Thur 1/1 Amman Downtown + citadel + Roman theatre 4 Fri 1/2 Amman Madaba/Um rasas Church Mount Nebo visit camp and talk to locals 5 Sat 1/3 Amman Baqaa Jerash Soof camps visit families 6 Sun 1/4 Amman Dead Sea Karak 7 Mon 1/5 Beit Ali 45 Petra 8 Tue 1/6 Aqaba28 Wadi rum 9 Wed 1/7 Amman Aqaba 10 Thur 1/8 Amman Visit to health clinic and nearby school in Nuzha Meet local young men at مكتبة عبد االحميید شومانن closes at 3:30 11 Fri 1/9 Amman Wehdaat Hussein camps visit Syrian family and Ali s house after Jumua prayer 12 Sat 1/10 Amman Presentations and free time 13 Sun 1/11 Drive to the airport Departure at 8:00 AM