How does the rentier concept apply in the context of the regulation and governance of human mobilities? Given that the hosting of forcibly displaced populations grants political actors the ability to extract revenue in a manner akin to oil rentier states via refugee rent-seeking (Tsourapas 2019), what broader lessons may we draw if we link migration and the rentier state? Similarly, in the case of labor migration in the Gulf, state actors delegate their ‘authority over migration to private actors and turns citizens into migration rentiers’ (Thiollet 2022, 1649). How does rentier state theory explain the politics of migrants and refugees in the Middle East? The relationship between rentierism and human mobilities formed the core of a Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) workshop organized on 22–23 September 2023 at the University of Glasgow. The workshop sought to unpack the linkages between cross-border mobility and rentier state theory in the Middle East.
Introduction – Rentierism in Middle East Migration and Refugee Politics
Marc Lynch, George Washington University and Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Glasgow
Refugee Commodification and Syrian Integration into Jordan’s Public Schools
Elizabeth Parker-Magyar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shaddin Almasri, Danube University Krems
Marketing Jordan’s Refugee-Hosting Capacity
Rawan Arar, University of Washington
Azad Visas in the Gulf: Exploring Migration Rentierism and its Implications
Zahra R. Babar, Georgetown University in Qatar
The Donor Side of Refugee Rentierism and Migration Management Aid
Nicholas R. Micinski, University of Maine and Kelsey P. Norman, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy
“Not Our Burden”: A Principal–Agent Analysis of Morocco’s EU-Style Migratory Policies
Ilyssa Yahmi, Temple University
Health Rentierism and Displacement: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Jordan
Sigrid Lupieri, Stanford University
Threatening Refugees: Refugee Rentierism and Arms Deals in Jordan, 1967–77
Lillian Frost, Virginia Tech
Migration Proxy Warfare: Exploring the Role of Non-State Armed Actors in Libya’s Refugee Rentierism
Alexandre Bish, University College London
The Intersection of Refugee Rentierism and Domestic Politics: The Anti-Refugee Far-Right in Türkiye
Ezgi Irgil, Swedish Institute of International Affairs
“We Fund Their Political Projects”: Refugee and IDP Rentierism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Abdullah Omar Yassen, Erbil Polytechnic University and Thomas McGee, University of Melbourne Law School
A Tale of Two Municipalities: The Local Politics of International Assistance During Refugee Crises
Reva Dhingra, Independent Scholar
Froilan Malit, Jr., American University in Dubai
James Worrall, University of Leeds
Migration Rentierism in the Middle East
Hélène Thiollet, Sciences Po CERI and Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Glasgow